Today we mark the 17th anniversary of September
11, 2001. One of the ceremonies that took
place today is the dedication of a new 9-11 monument in Shanksville,
Pennsylvania where the passengers on Flight 93 made the decision to try and
take back control of the plane from the terrorists. They knew that 3 other planes had been used
as weapons against America, so they took a vote on whether and how to take
action to prevent becoming the 4th
terrorist weapon. They knew the risks
that action would mean for each of them personally and collectively. Surely they all wished to live long lives,
but they came to the realization that there was a danger to the country and
other people they did not know that they had to try and prevent. They made the choice to put this greater need
and purpose above protecting their own lives.
In the wake of the passing of John McCain last month, I have
been thinking about the example he demonstrated during most of his life of the
character trait of choosing the “hard right over the easy wrong”. That is a value that every military academy
plebe hears from induction day until graduation, as the expected cornerstone of
service as a military officer. John
McCain’s decision to turn down an early release from torture while a prisoner
in North Vietnam and to follow the values in the Military Code of Conduct is of
course a clear example of that character.
At the time, he knew for certainty that his decision would result in
increased torture and beatings without knowing how long his captivity would
continue, or even if he would survive. The
strength of courage and depth of character that decision took has been an
inspiration to me in my life-long attempt to make decisions and choices based
on values and principles instead of personal self-interest.
Most of the political news, interviews and commentary during
the past 20 months has focused on the state of dysfunction and divisiveness in
our government. We have seen the
Congress fail to act effectively as a co-equal and separate branch of the
government, and fail to challenge statements and actions of the President when
they could be described as anti-democratic and in conflict with our national
values, character and principles. And we
have seen too many of our citizens become more divided and less tolerant of the
views and real needs of other citizens who don’t share their beliefs and life experiences. The result has been a significant decrease in
the level of concern and caring about the needs of other citizens.
Finally, even in the accomplishments of this Administration,
we have seen our leaders and our citizens focus on short term benefits at the
risk of the long term health of the economy and our security. They put their individual self-interests of
campaign contributions and re-election over the overall national
interests. The 2017 tax cut was “sold”
to the country as a policy that would benefit the working middle class, lead to
increases in jobs, and generate more than enough economic growth to offset the
immediate increase in the deficit.
However, we have seen about 70% of the profits added by the tax cut have
gone to stock buy-backs, with less than 20% going to benefit the working middle
class. The only significant economic
impact has been an increase in the stock market price, undoubtedly inflated by
the paper transfer of profits to stock on company balance sheets.. But these
has been no real or sustained increase
in the real drivers of economic GDP growth … yet.
While a small fraction of workers have received a one-time payment
from some companies, the country is now burdened with a major increase in the
national debt. The rate of GDP growth
has increased modestly in the first few quarters since the tax cut over the
previous 4 years. Encouragingly, GDP
growth exceeded 4% in Q2 of 2018 for the first time since the tax cut and
widely positioned as heralding the significant long term growth. However, we should recall that we’ve seen
quarterly growth rates spike like this in the past Administration. In fact, this rate would only be the 4th
highest quarterly GDP growth rate of the past 8 years.
Similarly, unemployment has dipped below 4% for the first
time in several decades, and this too has been positioned as signaling a
significant economic accomplishment. But in fact, this change is about 0.8%
lower than in the last month of the previous Administration, exactly the same
as the unemployment change in the previous 20 months. But the number of jobs created in the last
20 months is actually lower than the number of jobs created in the previous 20
months.
Quite simply, the benefits to the overall economy realized from
the tax cuts do not represent a good benefit for the country that is now
burdened with the resulting debt. Thus
far, these short term benefits have essentially resulted from an increase in
the public debt … borrowing money from our grandchildren to make our current
economic condition just a little better for some people.
This is not simply bad policy, it is a violation of the
traditional American value of sacrificing a bit today to make things better for
future generations than we are experiencing today. The increase in debt puts the economic
security of our grandchildren at risk.
Our grandparents in the “Greatest Generation” sacrificed their own
comforts to secure a better world and economic life for us, their
grandchildren. Our generation of leaders
seem to be headed toward being the “Selfish Generation”, putting a modest
increase in our own comforts by burdening our grandchildren with the costs.
Articles by Fortune and Reuters have highlight that this
level of investment in the stock market instead of investing in creating new
products, opening new plants or modernizing existing ones, or opening new
markets is “starving” American companies of the innovation we need for long
term growth. Several contrary articles
have also been written by financial managers arguing that stock buy backs are a
smart use of excess cash to generate greater value for shareholders when there
is not a better strategy to generating short term returns.
This thinking puts the short term interests of share holders
above the long term benefits of improving the company’s competitive position in
its market, developing new innovations for the future growth of the company, or
of sharing profits with employees … and of supporting the overall growth of the
national economy for the benefit of all.
We also need major investments in transportation and energy
infrastructure and better job training and re-training programs to fill open
higher paying jobs. But with the current
debt, our leaders will likely not take these actions. Sustained economic growth will require an
expanded infrastructure in transportation and energy … we cannot build a world
class economy on a second class infrastructure.
While this has been a major campaign promise of the Trump
Administration, there has been no major policy initiative to even repair our
existing infrastructure, let alone fund plans to support future growth.
Is there
any surprise that these actions, or lack thereof, have increased the level of
dissatisfaction with Congress from voters in both parties, have increased the
level of divisiveness in the country, and undermined our national unity?
What’s Needed to Change
Unity in America in either our governing or our citizenry won’t be restored
under the single ideology of either party.
Our country is too diverse in life experiences, religions, economic
situations, and family culture to be united by one ideology, or the policies
addressing the needs and concerns of one party.
What is needed to unite the country are policies that address the needs
and concerns of both parties.
To accomplish this goal, we need our leaders to collaborate together,
working to create what is called “the Third Alternative” by Steven Covey in his
classic book The 7 Basic Habits of Highly
Effective People. The policies that
unite America will be policies that integrate the alternative approaches
favored by each party into a new alternative that satisfies the needs and
concerns of both parties. This simply
requires that we harness the creative thinking of leaders who seek to respect,
understand and accommodate the needs and interests of the other party along
with their own needs and interests. As a
result, both parties would be putting the collective interests of the country
over either party.
As voters, we hire the Congressional leaders. We can continue to choose leaders based on
party affiliation, or those who commit to support only our beliefs and needs,
while ignoring and demeaning the beliefs and needs of the balance of the
country. Or, we can start to choose
leaders based on their character and the value and principle of serving the
country and not just their bases. We can
choose leaders who have the capacity to work together with the other party to
develop policies that address the needs and interests of the entire country,
and who will develop policies based on facts and unbiased analysis, rather than
on the demands of partisanship or ideologies.
This will require that each citizen
pay more attention to the policies being proposed, research what is truth and
facts in messages, and contact their representatives to demand bi-partisan
collaboration by our representatives to support the needs of all their
constituents, not merely those who voted for them. As John F. Kennedy stated, “In a democracy,
every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, ‘holds office'; every
one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon
how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political
leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.”
Our country needs citizen patriots
today – citizens willing to take actions, to avoid partisan divisiveness, to
let our leaders know we want bi-partisan governing and not one party partisan
governing, and that we will expect and demand higher character values from our
leaders. I believe this is the only
approach that will ever unite the country.
And if we can’t unite our citizens on national policies that address the
overall needs of the country, we will be a weaker country, economically,
socially and militarily.
Are you ready to be change we
need?
