Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Democrats need a shot in the arm

Democrats need a shot in the arm
Getty Images

Lynn Schmidt is a syndicated columnist and Editorial Board member with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Democrats need a shot in the arm. No, not a vaccine, rather a dose of energy and enthusiasm.


If one considers Donald Trump, who is almost certainly going to be the 2024 GOP nominee and is certainly a threat to our democratic republic, then you know that the fate of our democracy remains in the hands of the Democratic Party. While President Biden defeated Trump in 2020, Biden is not going into 2024 with the strength needed to do it again.

A July New York Times/Siena Poll showed a tie between Biden and Trump, each with 43%, when respondents were asked if the 2024 presidential election were held today, who would you vote for. That the two men are tied should give all Americans who think Trump’s behavior after the 2020 election was disqualifying, great pause.

In the same poll when Democratic voters were asked if the Democratic Party should renominate Joe Biden as the party's candidate for president in 2024, 50% of Democrats said they should nominate someone else.

Even though Biden’s legislative successes are piling up the data shows that the economy is improving, Biden approval ratings are not. They remain steady at 40% and not getting better over time. Many blame this weak opinion of the president on his age, polarization, an even more unpopular vice-president, or a combination of all three.

I propose an additional theory: Biden seems unable to inspire the American people.

Could an aspirational leader, a younger Democrat, someone with political talent galvanize the electorate to find common ground, change the direction from the wrong track towards the right, and break up our hyperpolarized quagmire? It certainly seems quite feasible.

One such skillful politician, a Democratic backbencher, is former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Landrieu deserves to be brought up from the minors to the big leagues and be allowed to show the country what he’s got.

Landrieu served as the 61st Mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018 during which time he played a key role in helping the city rebound from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He previously served as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana from 2004 to 2010. In 2021 President Biden named Landrieu a Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Coordinator who is responsible for coordinating and implementing the bipartisan infrastructure law.

Beyond his impressive executive skills and resume, Landrieu may be most widely known for a speech he gave in May of 2017 when he removed the last of the city’s several Confederate monuments. Landrieu’s rhetoric was hopeful and nonjudgmental. Here are a couple, potent stanzas from the speech.

“And I knew that taking down the monuments was going to be tough, but you elected me to do the right thing, not the easy thing and this is what that looks like. So relocating these Confederate monuments is not about taking something away from someone else. This is not about politics, this is not about blame or retaliation. This is not a naïve quest to solve all our problems at once.”

“This is however about showing the whole world that we as a city and as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, reconcile and most importantly, choose a better future for ourselves making straight what has been crooked and making right what was wrong. Otherwise, we will continue to pay a price with discord, with division and yes with violence.”

Landrieu’s words offered a promising future while not alienating those who disagree with him. They also illustrate his commitment to public service and his leadership style. It is also worth noting that he used the word “truth” 13 times in the speech.

Many presidents have brought the country together during crises with their moving oratory. Washington’s Farewell Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Inaugural Address, Reagan’s Berlin Wall Speech, and George W. Bush’s Post-9/11 Speech comes to mind.

The country should be grateful to Biden for his leadership out of the pandemic and restoring normalcy to our civic discord. But it is important that the Democratic Party look towards the future and elevate a younger voice; an energetic leader with good communication skills, and an inspiring vision. Someone who can inspire a broad coalition plus add new voters. Someone like Landrieu.

The same poll as mentioned above shows there is about 14% of the electorate that is up for grabs. This section of the electorate tended towards Biden in 2020 but now are recoiling at the idea of voting for either Trump or Biden again and are even unsure of whether they should even vote at all in 2024. This group is up for the taking, for a leader with skills, talent, and vision.

A resounding win by a bold and visionary leader is what our nation needs to address the serious problems facing our nation.

Read More

From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship
assorted notepads

From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneur John Marks developed a set of eleven working principles that have become his modus operandi and provide the basic framework for his new book, “From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship," from which a series of three articles is adapted. While Marks applied these principles in nonprofit work, he says they are also applicable to social enterprisesand to life, in general.

PART TWO

PRINCIPLE #4: KEEP SHOWING UP. It has been said that 80 percent of success in life is showing up. For social entrepreneurs, this means continuing to stay engaged without dabbling or parachuting. Like a child’s toy windup truck that moves forward until it hits an obstacle and then backs off and finds another way forward, social entrepreneurs should be persistent—and adept at finding work-arounds. They must be willing to commit for the long term. I found that this was particularly important when working with Iranians, who tend to view the world in terms of centuries and millennia.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ten Things the Future Will Say We Got Wrong About AI

A team of

Getty Images, Dragos Condrea

Ten Things the Future Will Say We Got Wrong About AI

As we look back on 1776 after this July 4th holiday, it's a good opportunity to skip forward and predict what our forebears will think of us. When our descendants assess our policies, ideas, and culture, what will they see? What errors, born of myopia, inertia, or misplaced priorities, will they lay at our feet regarding today's revolutionary technology—artificial intelligence? From their vantage point, with AI's potential and perils laid bare, their evaluation will likely determine that we got at least ten things wrong.

One glaring failure will be our delay in embracing obviously superior AI-driven technologies like autonomous vehicles (AVs). Despite the clear safety benefits—tens of thousands of lives saved annually, reduced congestion, enhanced accessibility—we allowed a patchwork of outdated regulations, public apprehension, and corporate squabbling to keep these life-saving machines largely off our roads. The future will see our hesitation as a moral and economic misstep, favoring human error over demonstrated algorithmic superiority.

Keep ReadingShow less
When Democracy’s Symbols Get Hijacked: How the Far Right Co-Opted Classical Imagery
brown concrete building under blue sky during daytime
Photo by Darryl Low on Unsplash

When Democracy’s Symbols Get Hijacked: How the Far Right Co-Opted Classical Imagery

For generations, Americans have surrounded themselves with the symbols of ancient Greece and Rome: marble columns, laurel wreaths, Roman eagles, and the fasces. These icons, carved into our government buildings and featured on our currency, were intended to embody democracy, civic virtue, and republican ideals.

But in recent years, far-right movements in the U.S. and abroad have hijacked these classical images, repackaging them into symbols of exclusion, militarism, and authoritarian nostalgia.

Keep ReadingShow less