None need a Ph.D to discern the division planted in present-day culture. While there’s temptation to hold specific individuals responsible for the current contempt, many suggest the onset of the heightened discord can be traced to the late 70’s, when local D.C. establishments became more exclusively Democratic or Republican. Our leaders stopped socializing with one another. It’s amazing what happens when people stop hanging out with diverse others; they stop seeing the beauty and potential wisdom in the one who thinks differently than they. Such creates an environment for the polarizing individuals to become more prominent.
This environment then creates an allure of the binary choice — that somehow one person or party is all good and the other is all evil — or — because one is all evil, the other is at least good enough. And just like that we fall into this trap that creates a sort of blind conformity or collective tunnel vision. It’s where people fall in line and echo the voices of the herd around them, as opposed to saying what needs to be said or doing what needs to be done.
I wonder how this happens within Pres. Trump’s administration. To suggest Trump can be erratic in either speech or behavior is not an understatement. There is valid question, as recently discussed here, as to whether his desired end always justifies the means. If there was a constitutional issue or law broken, would those most adjacent to his decision-making, who can see it best, speak up? Or would they simply fall in line? If not, would those in closer proximity to the President be threatened with loss of access, influence or future opportunity?
I wonder: where is the courage?
No doubt that’s what happened with Pres. Biden. As we hear more of the cringe-worthy reporting from Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on the interview circuit after the release of “Original Sin,” sharing numerous reports of how Biden’s inner circle intentionally covered up his cognitive decline, they speak of the numerous people who fell in line, choosing to either say nothing, see nothing, or gaslight instead. It wasn’t a question of whether the President should be President again but rather, whether he should have been President now.
Again we ask: where was the courage?
The division hurts us in that way. People fall in line, staying loyal to their so-called team, but oft adhering to questionable ethics along the way. As we ponder how to solve, my strong sense is we need to collectively incentivize courage.
We have challenges in current culture that we need people to be able to say out loud and soon solve. But when leaders currently attempt to do so, the other party pounces. In my opinion, this isn’t simply unfortunate; it is foolish. They are killing courage.
Let us acknowledge one of the biggest places we need courageous problem-solvers…
Allow me to introduce Jim Millstein, a former senior U.S. Treasury official who led the restructuring of major financial institutions like AIG after the 2008 financial crisis, one who was on the frontlines of combating the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression. Hence, his take on America’s national debt is significant. It’s also sobering. Millstein believes America could face a massive crisis in the next few years if Washington does not act.
As he shared last week, “The United States is running a $2 trillion deficit this year. Over $1 trillion of that will go just to interest payments, now the second-largest category of federal spending after Social Security.
That interest burden is not going away. It is getting worse. Over the next twelve months, the Treasury will have to refinance $10 trillion in debt. If interest rates keep rising, we are headed into what Millstein calls a debt spiral, a vicious cycle of higher borrowing and higher interest payments with no end in sight.
This is not a theoretical problem. If we fail to act, Americans will see the consequences everywhere: higher mortgage rates, rising costs on car loans, and an economy hobbled by political paralysis.”
That’s the problem our division has created. This is not a Trump problem or a Biden problem or a Republican problem or a Democrat problem. This is an American problem, created by a lack of courage.
We need courageous leaders from both the left and the right to engage in far more respectful, kind conversations on this and multiple other topics… How do we fix? How do we move forward?… Note that neither party has made any significant progress on decreasing our debt since 2001. That means that absolutely neither party is guiltless nor “more wrong.”
That’s the problem with division; it encourages those nearest the decision-makers to fall in line and not speak up. Thus, for the good of our country, we ask: how can we incentivize courage?
Respectfully…
AR