A Failure of Nerve
- By Tim Ryan
Drawing on his practice as a family therapist, Edwin Friedman applied his understanding of family systems to his work as a leadership consultant—and eventually to society at large. An ordained rabbi, he started to see deep similarities between the challenges facing families and the internal politics of religious organizations. To help leaders heal what he called “regressive societies,” Friedman developed techniques to restore the functioning of broken systems. His analysis is instructive for those of us seeking to bring change and improvement to American society.
Friedman spoke of the forces of negativity as pathogens that can cause disease. Like bacteria or parasites, social pathogens can spread through a family, a church, or an entire society. They have an invasive quality, like viruses, which cannot reproduce on their own but invade a cell’s DNA to replicate. Just as pathogens can feed on and destroy a human body, negativity can take over and destroy a body politic. In families and organizations, such malignancies show up in the form of alcoholics, troublemakers, and drama queens or kings. In a nation, pathogens appear as demagogues, egomaniacs, or political sycophants.
Friedman explained how neither biological pathogens nor troublemakers and demagogues can survive unless the host’s immune system is weak. If it were robust, they would fail to penetrate and replicate. This vulnerability is what Churchill had in mind when he said of his country’s appeasement of Hitler: “The malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous.” Europe and the British Empire had allowed the virus of fascism to spread and take hold.
Today, a high-grade, virulent strain of anti-worker, anti-union authoritarianism has taken hold in America and around the world. Here at home, it has ripped through and consumed the Republican Party, continuing to spread as it ravages trade unions and firefighters, pushes down wages, stifles free press, and eviscerates due process, the rule of law, and other national institutions that preserve and protect our liberty.
The contagion has likewise affected the Democratic Party, which now stands at a 27% approval rating, its lowest in history. For decades, most Democratic presidential candidates wouldn’t even say the word union. We needed a strong party to resist the anti-worker virus, but our political class was weak. It hosted the pathogen, and our body politic was poisoned. Our liberal institutions, which for decades allowed business and capital markets to thrive while protecting the weak and ensuring upward mobility for all, are being gutted from the inside.
Both political parties have been debilitated by the corrupting forces of money and privilege, insider dealings, shady business practices, ego, and entitlement. The Democratic Party was complicit in the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, the Enron fiasco, the subprime mortgage disaster, the Iraq War, anti-worker trade deals, huge tax cuts for the rich, income inequality, and massive debt and deficits. All of these factors weakened our democracy by accommodating toxic forces, empowering bullies, and stifling dissent while promoting a herd mentality. Democrats aided and abetted by voting for the wars, trade deals, and tax cuts, and leaving working-class people hanging with no response to globalization and automation.
The pathogen even took a toll on the executive branch. Joe Biden rigged the most recent Democratic presidential primary by rearranging the order to favor his campaign, boxing out any meaningful opposition and foreclosing debate. His top advisors, family, and cabinet covered up his clear incapacity. Democratic leaders didn’t have the guts to call for Biden to not run as they aimed to preserve their careers over doing what was best for the country. Having failed to acknowledge the rigged primary or the lies, many of those same leaders went on to gaslight anyone who had the courage to speak up (including yours truly). Now, they are parading around the nation saying that Donald Trump is doing the same thing and they’re outraged. Spare me.
Neither political party should be led by anyone who looked the other way when our democracy faced an existential threat. As Dante warned us, the hottest places in hell are reserved for people who in times of great moral crisis remain neutral.
These leaders chose the path of least resistance. Owing to their weakness, we are now, officially, in a regressive society—Orwellian, some might even say. Politicians’ lies are buttressed by enablers and sycophants on both sides, making the truth harder to find. As the old saying goes, “A lie is halfway around the world while the truth is still home putting on its pants.” It’s even more true today in our digital world.
So what can we do? We need to choose adventure over safety, and challenge over comfort.
Adventure over safety
“The safest place for a ship is in the port. But that is not why ships are built.” —John A. Shedd
“On the wreckage of every great civilization should be inscribed, They did not dare.” —Unknown
It is time to dare again to have a bold vision for America. We have become too calculating, scared, and preoccupied with polling data. We need to stop checking surveys and start checking our gut. We are obsessed with trying to figure out where people are instead of leading from our hearts and taking people to where they want to go.
There is an opening in our politics for a new Democratic Party. Since the civil rights era of the 1960s, the party has taken Black people’s votes for granted while the Republicans have largely ignored them. Meanwhile, Republicans took rural voters for granted as the Democrats ignored them. The Democratic Party needs to passionately go into all communities with new ideas and a renewed commitment to fight for the issues that every American struggles with, instead of trying to eke out narrow victories by targeting specific blocs of voters.
To inspire us as we build a robust, national coalition that can bring about structural reform to America’s broken institutions, we need look no further than to the courageous navigators and astronauts who, each in their own way, advanced society. Both used the technological breakthroughs of the day to achieve progress. New methods of building ships and rigging sails made the journeys of the navigators possible, while advances in propulsion, satellites, and aviation made our space program a reality. But more than technology, it was their gutsy sense of adventure that drove these pioneers to new frontiers. Democrats need to channel that courage.
There are plenty of examples to look to. The first Democrat, Thomas Jefferson, sponsored the travels of Lewis and Clark. FDR said we had a “rendezvous with destiny.” And, of course, JFK inspired Americans to reach for the moon and take on other challenges, “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Let us now meet the moment and dedicate ourselves to reforming and modernizing society in both the public and private sectors, through every town and village, and across every institution, large or small. We need to break up the political monopoly in Washington and return power back to local communities. We need to rebuild from the grass roots up, empowering citizens and starting service programs at the state level. It’s an adventure I want to go on with my fellow citizens. There is no reason, for example, why Ohio cannot have a Buckeye Corp to help rebuild our communities and support everyday people.
Democrats need to build a modern economy that truly leaves no family behind. Our nation has generated trillions of dollars in wealth from free trade and automation. At the same time, we deprived millions of Americans of the ability to enjoy the rewards of that success by blowing it all on wars and tax cuts for the most affluent people in the wealthiest country on God’s green earth. We must create a new economic covenant, where businesses solve big problems and apply robust profits to real growth in wages for workers. Our economy should work seamlessly in conjunction with a nimble and creative public sector that invests in our healthcare and education, while simultaneously protecting our rivers and farmlands and supporting our local communities and commercial districts.
Americans have an unlimited ability to imagine and create. Let’s put our gifts to work as we remake and modernize the country. As Einstein told us, we cannot rely on thinking from the past to deal with problems of the present, or the future.
Challenge over comfort
“The New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it is a set of challenges.” —John F. Kennedy
It’s time we challenge Americans to commit to a renewed sense of citizenship. We must go deeper and become grittier if we will ever bring about the kind of transformational change this world demands. We must have the guts to take on corruption, egotism, fossilized modes of thinking, and a lack of imagination, as we reimagine systems and institutions to draw out and cultivate human potential so that we can face intractable challenges.
This is not a time for Everyone gets a trophy. It’s time for us as a people to be better, get better, and do better. Our systems must encourage and develop our talents. Do our leaders have the guts to challenge our citizens, or will they just pander to them? Do we have the courage to challenge each other to look beyond our own egos? Our own organizations? Our own political tribes? Can we set aside our narrow interests to be a part of a national effort, knowing that the bolder and larger the effort, the more likely it will ultimately serve our own narrower interests?
Together, let us embrace a spirit of collective action for our common problems. Let us embody a spirit of reform by reimagining our broken food and agriculture systems, our school systems and our healthcare systems. Let us make technological innovation work for us, rather than us working for technology. Let us unleash the human spirit as we unshackle ourselves from a corrosive politics that stunts progress. Let’s stop the coddling and challenge each other to participate in building something new, together.
Embrace our moment in history
We are in an age of great upheaval, and business as usual will no longer do. It’s the legacy of the Democratic Party to meet the challenges of our time by taking issue with the status quo. When you feel timid or scared, remember that JFK challenged the orthodoxy of his party on civil rights and the space race. RFK challenged us on the war in Vietnam, to see that government spending could not solve all of our problems, and to recognize that Americans of all races had very similar economic challenges. President Obama and Speaker Pelosi gave us the Affordable Care Act.
Americans are by nature optimistic, President Kennedy told us. We are experimental—inventors and builders who build best when we build greatly. It is time to do this, Democrats. Our country needs a party that will meet this moment. God knows the Republicans won’t.
About The Author
Tim Ryan is a former U.S. Congressman from Ohio known for his pragmatic, bipartisan approach to economic policy, innovation, and workforce development. He champions working-class issues, emerging technologies, and common-sense reforms to strengthen America’s middle class and future economy.
