When local leaders need to look in the mirror
I found New York Times journalist Nick Kristof’s comments at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles essential to a healthier understanding of federalism and state and local leadership. Kristof quickly notes his own progressive preferences, but then urges fellow progressives to spend less time focusing on the Trump administration and more time taking ownership of failures in the cities and communities they govern. He points to the affordability crisis, arguing that heavy regulatory environments are making life harder for working families, and then turns to education, highlighting troubling outcomes in progressive-led states and cities. “Do we need to look a little bit less at the Trump administration is doing to harm working class families and look a little more in the mirror?” asks Kristof.
It is an important question, and one that should be asked more often regardless of political ideology. There is no shortage of scapegoating in national politics, and Democrats have found real success in making even local elections a referendum on President Trump. Politically, it is hard to move away from what is working. But governing well requires more than identifying and pointing at the opponent. It requires leaders to take responsibility for the schools, housing markets, regulations, public safety systems, and institutions they actually control. In my own view, Congress’s manifold failures to govern responsibly demands that they own the responsibility for our debt. One can quibble a little about the responsibility of voters to demand more fiscal responsibility from their national representatives but Congress knows its importance. Instead they choose political safety and more scapegoating.
Overall, there is a real need for leaders willing to look honestly at their own failures, fix what is broken, and be judged by outcomes rather than intentions.
—Ray Nothstine
— The Federalism Beat