People are deeply frustrated and exasperated by the state of the union. They believe that the nation is heading seriously off course and has been for some time. These feelings are not a momentary or passing fad, but emerge from day-to-day experiences. They are based on Americans growing fear that their aspirations will be dashed, and that their worst nightmares will become reality.
The frustration is only made worse by a profound disappointment that there has not been more progress in addressing the challenges people see facing the nation. They question whether political leaders, news media, business leaders, and citizens themselves have the will to act, let alone to put our nation back on course.
A deep sense of betrayal marks many people s attitudes. It is clear, unmistakable, and powerful. They see a nation splitting in two with the wealthy getting wealthier, the middle class getting poorer. They believe that they have little control over the future. They harbor feelings that a basic sense of fairness is being violated. To many, the country they love is being ripped away from them.
In 1991, The Harwood Group released a report for the Kettering Foundation, Citizens and Politics: A View from Main Street America, which along with other studies, discovered the public lashing out at the political system. In the ensuing elections, leaders sought to gain political momentum by tapping into the public s wave of anger.
The 1992 and 1994 elections were framed around the idea that Americans wanted change, and 1996 is shaping up to be no different. Unfortunately, such calls then and now are based on a dangerously superficial reading of the public.
People are struggling with the effects of an economy that they feel endangers their sense of economic security and opportunity; they fear the consequences of disintegrating families and values in the nation. They are wrestling with the meaning of these shifts in America for instance, how should we define the American Dream? What is the role of government in addressing the nation s challenges? What is the compact between employers and workers? What is the proper place of personal responsibility in a consumer-driven society?
While people are clear on their common concerns, they are deeply ambivalent about what should be done. Leaders who ignore this ambivalence in the name of pursuing wholesale change will merely add to Americans sense of exasperation there can be no mandate for wholesale change at a time when Americans are so torn. But leaders should be careful not to mistake this ambivalence for indifference. People care deeply about what is happening around them, and they are affected in profound ways.
As the 1996 election heats up, we find candidates, pundits, pollsters, and others bombarding the public with litanies of policy proposals that seek to respond to a shifting America. Each day new issue papers are churned out, speeches and messages get molded.
But when added up, all the hoopla seems to miss the point. It seems shallow. It doesn't ring true. Americans are not searching for a candidate who can spew out a series of one-line policy prescriptions, or news media coverage that can detail such pronouncements and handicap the race.
Instead, people are troubled by the large challenges of our time. If America is to correct its course, they wonder, what will become of the nation's economy and the rules of society? How can we reverse the trend of disintegrating families and values? These challenges cause Americans to struggle with fundamental issues of fairness, opportunity, security, responsibility, and control. They cause people to lie awake at night.
In the struggle within America, people believe that there are no easy way out to deal with these challenges. Quick fixes and magic bullets are viewed with contempt. Fragmented policy proposals are seen as tiny Band-Aids being placed on broad, deeply- ingrained problems. Feel-good ads are interpreted as political moves to duck the tough challenges. Grandiose promises are viewed as ill-conceived substitutes for meaningful progress.
People are ready for the hard work of determining the nation s future. They want to find a coherent direction for moving ahead. They believe it is time to begin sorting out the responsibility of individuals, civic groups, business, government, and other institutions. They are searching for social compacts to guide their lives and the nation.
One of the realities that so frightens Americans today is that they wonder whether the nation can address its challenges given current conditions of American public life.
They say politicians are obsessed with scoring political points, raising money, and winning elections. News media are enamored with conflict and sensationalism. Far too many citizens are spectators in public life, standing on the sidelines, pointing fingers of blame, and failing to assume responsibility.
America is stuck. How can a nation move forward when its public life is mired in acrimony and diviseness, selfishness and personal greed?
Too many people have abandoned their sense of responsibility. Politicians seem more tied to monied interests than the common interest. Journalists seem to have lost sight of their mission to inform. Individuals seem to act more as complainers and claimants, than as folks who can contribute to make things better.
People are yearning for a new kind of leadership to move the nation forward but one that is appropriate for these times. They do not seek leaders who purport to be the shining knight on the white horse claiming that they will single-handedly take care of America s problems, promising to spare people sacrifice and pain, predicting that our challenges will be met overnight.
Instead, people argue that America needs leaders who hold a renewed sense of public responsibility. Leaders who understand that in their role they exercise a larger public mission. Leaders who believe that they serve the public, and are holders of a sacred public trust.
No doubt this view of leadership applies to politicians. But people say that all segments in society must exercise leadership from the news media, to business executives, and citizens. Only then can America create the conditions within public life to move itself forward.
This new kind of leadership will not be easy. It will require public officials, news media, citizens and others to resist reflexes that have become ingrained in our public life. Those who commit themselves to this leadership will: Recognize that there must be more at work in our public lives than just our own individual interests. We must work to create a public or common interest. Realize that too much conflict and sensationalism squeezes out the room people need to be ambivalent. There must be more opportunity for people to think, talk, and come to informed judgments. Know that a superficial gauging of public attitudes cannot reflect the true nature and depth of people s concerns. Instead we must take the time to listen, probe, examine and make sense of what people say. Conduct our daily work within a context that reaches beyond our own thoughts of personal gain and glory. There must be a higher public calling. Consider the repercussions of what we do in our public role. Withholding the harsh truth is not desirable, but neither is trumpeting half-truths that serve to undermine trust and our belief in one another. Understand that it is not possible for a neighborhood, a community, or the nation to work effectively when people stand separated from the public realm.
Some observers will say that this notion of leadership sounds idealistic or naive. But for the Americans who participated in this study, this view of leadership is based on a simple, but harsh reality of our times: people are deeply concerned about their own future and that of the nation. They seek leadership based on a renewed sense of public responsibility.
When standing back from this study, and thinking about other Harwood Group projects, a path for moving ahead begins to emerge. The path has these characteristics. Sense of Possibility. People know that something is amiss in America. But they do not want to wallow in despair. Instead they want a clear description of what s wrong and a sense of what progress can be made. Fairness. When it comes to public life, fairness is a defining value of the time. Much of American life seems unfair to people from how corporate decisions are made, to growing gaps in incomes, to who bears the brunt of taxes. The value of fairness will stand as the nation s test as it seeks to move ahead. Responsibility. Throughout the citizen conversations, people repeatedly sounded the theme of responsibility. People believe that all Americans must assume more responsibility for their daily lives and the nation. Americans will look to see if efforts to move the nation ahead call on the people to exercise greater responsibility. Balance. People want to restore a sense of balance to American life. Their desire applies to news media coverage, political rhetoric, work and family life, and entertainment. It is not that they seek entirely to repudiate all the excesses in American life, but to regain their footing. Restrained Government. People still believe in a role for government in society, but they want government to act only when necessary. The first question people want government to ask is: Who else can address this problem? and not, What government program should we create? Local Initiative. People want more action initiated and carried out closer to home. As America struggles with its future, it only makes sense to Americans that those closest to the challenges should be more involved in working out ways to meet them. New Social Compacts. People see America s social compacts as up for grabs from how employers and workers interact to government s role in addressing the nation s challenges to the definition of the American Dream. People seek to strike new compacts that make sense for our shifting nation.
Americans can feel the nation shifting, and they are deeply ambivalent concerning what to do about those shifts. They want to move the nation forward. But they do not seek wholesale change.
Rather, people want to pursue steady
progress that recognizes the inherent difficulty and complexity of the
challenges they face. They want the chance to regain confidence and trust
in their leaders, in their institutions, and in themselves. People seek
to balance their sense of possibility with realistic expectations. They
want to dream but they do not want to chase fantasies that merely lead to
more frustration.
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