“Democracy is a process, not a static condition. It is becoming, rather than being. It can easily be lost, but never is fully won. Its essence is eternal struggle.” —William Hastie
On June 27, 2024, I watched the globally televised debate between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump in a semi-dazed state of disbelief. My emotions alternated between laughter, anger, sadness, and deep concern.
Intentionally, I almost never write about politics—and this post is no exception. This essay is not about politics. It’s about the absence of great leadership in our federal government, which inevitably comes with a cost that every American must bear. Additionally, the twofold source of our current problem is central to my aspirations for advancing the cause of shared leadership and dispersed power in human institutions:
- First, very few voices are actually included in selecting our Democratic and Republican nominees at the federal level.
- Second, both current presidential candidates, like many leaders across human history, have overreached; they have become self-absorbed, and gone too far. They are too caught up in their own voices.
To the first problem: When Nikki Haley, the last surviving Republican presidential challenger to Donald Trump, withdrew from the race on March 5, 2024, more than half the states in America had yet to vote, and now had only one choice. On the Democratic side, of course, incumbent president Joe Biden was allowed no serious challengers, running essentially unopposed.
The population of my home state of Maine is 1,385,000, and just 7 percent of them voted in the Republican primary that selected the only surviving candidate, Donald Trump. In the Maine Democratic primary, President Biden received 58,950 votes; his only opponent was Dean Phillips, who received 4,561 votes.
We haven’t even gotten to the wildest part of all: Only 27 percent of all Americans identify as Democrat, yet they get to pick one of two finalists for every top elected position in Washington. And only 27 percent of Americans identify as Republican, yet they get to pick the other finalist. Meanwhile, 43 percent of Americans identify as Independent, and they go unrepresented.
This is not a system of many voices. And because we all collectively tolerate it, we are living with the consequences.
To the second problem: Both Biden and Trump think that they, better than anyone else, can save us. That’s hubris. They both had their turn, yet they want more. That’s overreaching. The two candidates have one thing in common: They are both on a personal mission to “save” America. Think about the self-aggrandizement embedded in that belief. Listen to them both talk and you will hear the same phrases—
I saved us from inflation.
I brought back America’s respect and standing in the world.
My administration did this.
My administration did that.
—every speech, dominated with “I” and “my.”
Both men mean well, as do their supporters. This essay is not about tearing either of them down; they both get an “A” for effort. But the reality is, America can do better—much better. And we know it.
We need to establish a new system and new values for selecting our top federal political leaders in the twenty-first century. The status quo is consistently not working. Why? The answer is simple: too few voices and choices. The biggest voting bloc in the country—Independents—is not represented. That makes no sense. We need a third party.
Even within the Democratic and Republican parties, the primary system makes no sense. Every time, it’s over before most states even get a chance to vote. Every state should vote on the same day, and everyone should be voting for the finalists.
This article also appeared in the July 7, 2024 Maine Sunday Telegram (pictured above).
Finally, we need younger Americans to come of political leadership age—to exert more influence, produce more candidates, and bring forth our next wave of government leaders. We need a positive set of political paradigms that aren’t division-based. I believe only the next generation, who grew up in the freest epoch of American history, can do that.
I listen closely to Joe Mazzulla, the thirty-five-year-old coach of the NBA champion Boston Celtics. I want more of his kind of fresh leadership in our federal government. He was born in this new age of America, and his perspectives, like so many of his generation, are different, and exciting. They transcend the old, tired language of division. They aren’t saddled with the gender, race, and religion baggage older generations are still carrying. We need more voices like Mazzulla’s, to create forward-looking systems that speak to the center of America, not its edges, or its past.
Our current system doesn’t work well anymore because it represents only a fraction of our nation’s amazing voices.
It’s time, and we know it. Let’s go.
“You can ignore reality, but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” —Ayn Rand
