海角大神

Leadership includes humility? Some Republicans see an ideal to revive.

Leaders in America have long faced a built-in challenge 鈥� a tension woven into the fabric of their nation鈥檚 version of democracy.

Individual elections are winner-take-all, and competition in a two-party system can mean polarization and fierce struggles for influence. Yet the nation鈥檚 founders were fundamentally skeptical toward concentrated power. They sought to diffuse the necessary authority invested in individuals, institutions, or even more populous regions of the country.

The Madisonian principle of checks and balances 鈥� designed to thwart a leader who seeks undue power 鈥� implicitly calls for leaders who can put the needs of democracy ahead of their own ambitions.聽

In the 2020 election and its aftermath, both this ideal and the constitutional checks on executive power were sorely tested, as President Donald Trump sought to overturn the outcome of the vote. In the aftermath, a sitting president was impeached a historic second time and his trial begins in the Senate next week.

Now, as politicians 鈥� and Republicans, in particular 鈥� are calibrating how to move forward, these principles from the nation鈥檚 founding remain vital. On one hand, they show the power of the politics of self-interest in a time of polarization. But they also highlight how dearly democracies depend on the opposite qualities to survive: humility and an unselfish spirit of service.

鈥淚nstead of it just being, you know, about me, me, me, or being a sole independent operator鈥� in places like the Senate, 鈥渙r instead of trying to be the great savior of the country, how do you see yourself in the context of other people?鈥� says former Sen. John Danforth, a Missouri Republican who served three terms through the mid-1990s. 鈥淒o you have sufficient humility so that you鈥檙e not somebody who鈥檚 just trying to roll over people?聽Are you able to love your enemy? But we shouldn鈥檛 even think in terms of enemies 鈥� do you love your opponent?鈥�

While it may sound quaint in this hard-edged political era, this vision isn鈥檛 merely wishful, scholars say. Politicians aren鈥檛 expected to give up partisanship, but to engage in the tug-and-pull of the American system.聽聽

鈥淲e expect our political leaders, our elected officials, to listen to the popular will of the majority, but we also must expect them to聽make decisions on behalf of broader interests 鈥� and those may not always be congruent with our individual, particular, or partisan interests,鈥� says Meena Bose, a political scientist at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

鈥淪o leadership in the American political system must be built on the premise that the people鈥檚 representatives should聽balance intra-competing interests,鈥� she adds. 鈥淥ur system of separation of powers and checks and balances means that negotiations, compromises, and alliance-building are key building blocks of our political system 鈥� and part of that process is recognizing that, you know, that there are successes and disappointments.鈥�

Trump and a polarized era

Mr. Trump proclaimed his populist message with unshakable confidence and a deep sense of self-reliance.聽he famously said of the problems confronting the nation.聽

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, he added: 鈥淲hen somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that鈥檚 the way it鈥檚 got to be.鈥� (Though later,, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 take responsibility at all鈥� for the crisis.)聽

Vigorous opinions and sharp partisanship are necessary parts of the democratic process. But there are also personality traits and skills that promote聽cooperation and consensus.

鈥淟incoln had a 鈥榩ublic servant鈥檚 heart,鈥� but he also understood how to combine it with a partisan head,鈥� says Matthew Pinsker, a Civil War historian at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 鈥淣obody should expect Republicans to stand down in their battles with Democrats, but they have to relearn some of the lessons of past GOP heroes like Lincoln or Reagan, who knew when to聽put country above party.鈥�

That can be difficult in such a polarized environment. Republican leaders and rank-and-file GOP voters in states such as Arizona, Michigan, and Georgia have聽聽against Republicans who spoke out forcefully against Mr. Trump鈥檚 false allegations of election fraud or voted to impeach him. Republicans as a whole remain steadfast in their support for the former president, even as he faces a trial in the Senate.聽

But the cost for such thinking might already be apparent, some say.

鈥淲hile I don鈥檛 think I would rely on politicians changing their instincts of self-preservation, I do believe that Republicans should begin to think, well, we鈥檙e not going to preserve ourselves if we continue to be a party that鈥檚 wildly popular with maybe a third of the population,鈥� says Senator Danforth, an ordained Episcopal minister who presided at the funeral of former President Ronald Reagan.聽

鈥淲e teach our kids鈥�

In 2018, when former two-term Republican Congresswoman Mimi Walters lost her seat in a California district Democrats had never won before, she, too, that Democrats might try to steal the tightly-contested election, even as she watched her initial lead evaporate as mail-in votes were counted for days after the election.

鈥淲e teach our kids to win gracefully and to lose gracefully,鈥� says Ms. Walters, who eventually accepted the process and conceded to her Democratic opponent. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 not what we鈥檙e witnessing with our leaders on both sides of the aisle, and we haven鈥檛 witnessed that in the last four years.鈥澛�

She calls for leadership by example 鈥� with implications that go beyond politics. 鈥淵ou know, a younger generation is looking at the way our leaders conduct themselves as they forge their lives and come into adulthood, and if they witness our leaders being disrespectful to one another and treating one another the way that they have been, then they will think that that behavior is OK. And it鈥檚 not OK.鈥澛犅�

In fact, humility is anything but weakness, says Ken Ruscio. As a distinguished lecturer at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond in Virginia, he is studying how humility has impacted presidential leadership.聽

He sees the power of humility 鈥渋n the admission of error and the capacity to learn from one鈥檚 mistakes; in the reverence for institutions and the reluctance to assert power beyond what the duties and the responsibilities of the office require; in the intellectual modesty that makes one aware of the need to seek truth through reason and analysis rather than assuming you are the repository of received wisdom.鈥澛�

These result in 鈥渁 recognition that power is to be deployed in service of goals larger than the self, and certainly never in service only to the self,鈥� he says.

Such virtues are necessary for the challenges of democratic leadership, adds former Rep. Christopher Shays, a Republican from Connecticut who served 11 terms.

鈥淟eaders, good leaders, speak in a way to bring out their better nature, and then speak to the public to bring out the public鈥檚 better nature, so that it magnifies and grows and then becomes dominant,鈥� he says.

鈥淎nd that means that truth matters, it means that courage matters, and it means that leaders should be willing to lose support because you鈥檙e saying things that your supporters may not want to hear, but need to hear,鈥� he adds. 鈥淚n the end, you鈥檒l be in a much better place personally, and so will your country.鈥�