America faces greater obstacles today than at any time in our history since the Civil War, and incremental approaches aren’t going to solve them. It’s time for visionary leadership and fearless risk taking or we will all lose in a very profound way.
By David Todd McCarty | Thursday, August 1, 2019
As we are now past two rounds of debates featuring an unreasonable field of 20 candidates, political pundits continue to argue about the direction of the Democratic Party, with many urging the candidates to appeal to the broad fears of the electorate rather than attempting to dream big. Countless opinion pieces in the Times and the Post warn candidates about the dangers of moving too far Left, cautioning that they run the risk of catastrophic failure in the face on Donald Trump.
What they fail to recognize is that we already face catastrophe if all we do is strike a moderate tone and urge caution and incremental change. This is expected from career politicians, as incremental change is what keeps politicians in power. Slow and steady wins the race is their axiom.
Great success in business, athletics, music or art, has never been attained through moderate behavior or fear of failure. You have to hang it all out there and trust that you will win. We might win an election. We might hold off the forces of evil for four years, but if we don’t fundamentally change how we operate as a country, there won’t be anything left to defend. We’re in an environmental free fall that will take a lot more than a moderate Democrat with conservative plans to make incremental changes. We need “let’s go to the moon” level innovation and passion if we’re going to get out of this alive.
Our society is in danger of pulling itself apart, largely because the Founding Fathers couldn’t envision the 21st century, or see beyond an agrarian paradigm. Compromises were made in order to satisfy small states, so that now North Dakota’s 750,000 residents have the same Senatorial power as California’s 40 million, not to mention the fact that the electoral college allows for someone to win the popular vote and lose the Presidency. That was not the intended effect.
We are facing a massive cliff, if we’re not already over the tipping point, and we can not afford to conduct business as usual. We need smart, impassioned leaders willing to think big and listen to crazy ideas. That is not your typical politician. We need someone willing to fail, which is a big ask.
