Politics in Question
In this episode of the Politics in Question podcast, Colorado State Senator Faith Winter discusses the power of collaborative governance and how residents, activists, and elected officials can share in decision-making power to achieve common goals.
Chaleff is a speaker, innovative thinker and the author of “To Stop a Tyrant: The Power of Political Followers to Make or Brake a Toxic Leader.” This is the third entry in a series on political followership.
Saying that someone is a politician is not typically a compliment these days. Often, it is quite the opposite.
What a shame. Who do we want legislating and governing? Individuals with little skill for communicating? Who cannot compromise when they need to pass a policy solution to a real-world problem? Who doesn't understand the legislative process or the strategies for building a winning coalition?
Compare this to other areas of life. Why do we want certified electricians to do the wiring in our homes? Licensed heart surgeons to replace leaky valves? Those fluent in two languages to translate for world leaders in sensitive negotiations?
It’s because there is real skill required in these roles, and real consequences for the job being done wrong. Believe it or not, political leaders also need real skills. The stakes are also high. In a divided government, where the majority of one or both chambers of Congress represents a different party than the president, nothing can get accomplished without skillful politicians.
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Of course, to be a politician in a democratic society, one needs to get elected and stay elected. This takes us back to leaders and their followers, which was the subject of my two previous writings. What kinds of followers are needed to elevate politicians who have the intention and skills to make positive things happen?
Let’s start our examination with what I previously described as the outer ring of political followers — the populace. What can they (we) do to identify and lift up politicians with the skills needed in the current political climate? For those of us who have not put our energy into political activism, the choices of who is on the ballot have already been made. So, what’s our role as responsible citizens in relation to these choices?
First of all, we need to stop being lazy. That’s a harsh thing to say, isn’t it? But here’s why I say it.
Too many of us overly rely on our self-identification — “I’m a Republican,” “I’m a Democrat,” “I’m a (fill in the blank).” That’s a shorthand way of making our political decision without needing to do much work. But if the activists have been successful in giving us highly polarized choices, casting our vote without further scrutiny may well elect an inept politician who will do more to gum up the governing process than to achieve results.
The second way of being “lazy” is to continually listen to the same news source. A big problem with that practice is that these days there are very few actual news sources. Far more often, we are listening to commentary from one end of the political spectrum or the other. Listening to a biased new source can make us feel righteously angry at the “other side” and superior about our “own side,” but falls short of helping us understand the issues as they impact people across the political range.
The solution? It’s what your mother told you about the food you need for your health: a balanced diet. The same applies to staying politically healthy: consume a balanced political information diet. Watch or listen to or stream or read political news from at least two, preferably three or four, sources coming from different points of view. Then (here’s the hard part) work out your own POV.
Sure, you’ll use your political beliefs as an important part of your decision making, but as you read or listen, you’ll also factor in such things as: Who carries a positive vision of the future that inspires engagement? Who is bringing relevant skills to the task of governing? Which candidate is committed to their values and is also a realist who knows the perfect is the enemy of the good? Who is committed to upholding and improving democratic processes to give us all a voice?
The third thing we can do is to use that voice. Use it in all the ways that sustaining our democracy requires. Mom was also a good guide for doing that: “Don’t shout. Use your language.”
Use your language in appropriate and courageous ways. Speak up when you hold a different perspective. Speak up if you see others being shut down. Shut up if the political leader is relying on hateful speech to rouse his followers — don’t cheer or collude with this. Even if everyone around you is shouting approval, hold your principled position. When the noise dies down, invite conversations where anyone who wants to tell their story can do so.
Early readers of “To Stop a Tyrant”reported one common response. They no longer felt powerless when up against forces larger than themselves. No force is larger than the individual who understands that it is always individuals who are the building block of movements for change, or movements of resistance.
Do not underestimate what the Czech playwright and politician Vaclav Havel called “the power of the powerless.” In recent months we have seen British voters throw out the Conservatives who had been the ruling party for 13 years. Students in Bangladesh forced the removal of their increasingly tyrannical prime minister. Arguably, President Joe Biden’s low poll ratings among potential voters (the populace) created the conditions in which party insiders convinced him to end his candidacy for a second term.
You have more power than you think if it is used in the window when action makes a difference — before a prototyrant has amassed the power of the full fledged tyrant.
If you are still not convinced, dive deeper into the book during the remaining days in this election cycle, or join me in the next installation when I discuss the activist circle of followers. Will that be you in that circle?
Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
Pedro Silva, director of engagement at YOUnify, brings a wealth of cross-sector experience to the job. A veteran of the Air Force who served as both a satellite communications technician and a Mandarin Chinese language/intelligence analyst, he has cultivated the capacity to think missionally and practically — strategically and tactically — on a wide variety of concerns.
In his post-military career, Silva worked as a corporate recruiter for eight years, serving dozens of for-profit, not-for-profit, and B corporations in the areas of technology, biotech and more. In 2009, he entered Andover Newton Theological Seminary and for 10 years served as a pastor in the socially active United Church of Christ. In that role, Silva built on his passion for civic engagement.
For three years he served as the state representative for the Boulder caucus of Together Colorado, an organization of the Faith In Action Network, where he worked on a variety of issues at the local to state levels ranging from affordable housing, gun violence and voting to living wage legislation and the Family Leave Act. He also served on several committees with the local NAACP chapter and worked with the Boulder Community Foundation as an advisor in the wake of the tragic shooting in Boulder.
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In addition to these efforts, Pedro hosted numerous in-person and online conversations on race in Boulder County, has been an advocate for the homeless community, and has made a mark on the bridging movement through his volunteer work with Living Room Conversations and now as director of engagement with YOUnify.
Most recently, Silva launched The Liberation Comedy Project, an initiative to draw people closer to one another by positively exposing the comedy in the conflicts that distract us from deeper relating across differences.
Kristina Becvar, co-publisher of The Fulcrum and executive director of the Bridge Alliance had the opportunity to interview Silva a few weeks ago for the CityBiz “Meet the Change Leaders” series. Watch to learn the full extent of his democracy reform work:
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
Seth David Radwell, author of “American Schism: How the Two Enlightenments Hold the Secret to Healing Our Nation,” is an entrepreneur, business executive and recognized thought leader in consumer marketing. A common thread across all his leadership and business endeavors has been his passion for our shared democratic values and his interest in American public policy.
Until 2018, he served as the CEO of The Proactiv Company, the leading skincare brand addressing acne. Prior to that, he served as president and chief revenue officer of Guthy-Renker, the leading worldwide direct-to-consumer beauty company. In that role, Radwell led the growth of such leading brands as Proactiv Acne Solutions, Cindy Crawford’s Meaningful Beauty, IT Cosmetics, Wen Hair Care by Chaz Dean and Crèpe Erase.
Radwell previously served as president of e-Scholastic, the digital arm of the global children’s publishing and education company. In prior roles, Radwell was president of Bookspan/Bertelsmann, the premier direct marketer of general interest and specialty book clubs such as Book of the Month Club, Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild. He was also senior vice president of content for Prodigy Services Company, where he pioneered new ecommerce revenue streams for the online service business. Prior to his days in ecommerce and the internet, Radwell spent six years with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
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Radwell received a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He holds a bachelor of arts degree (summa cum laude) from Columbia College at Columbia University.
I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Radwell a few weeks ago for the CityBiz “Meet the Change Leaders” series. Watch to learn the full extent of his democracy reform work:
Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
Rob Richie is senior advisor at FairVote, an organization he co-founded in 1992 and led as CEO from 1992 to 2023. He has helped advance major electoral reforms, including the Fair Representation Act in Congress, a national popular vote plan, ranked-choice voting in Alaska, Maine and more than 50 cities, and voter access changes like preregistration, automatic voter registration, and remedies in voting rights cases.
His thought leadership contributions include invention of the partisan voting index to project federal elections and Alaska’s top-four primary that combines all-candidate, open primaries with ranked-choice voting.
He is a frequent media source and has been a guest on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” “On the Media” and “Fresh Air,” C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,” CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox and NBC. His writings have appeared in numerous major daily newspapers and in 11 books, including as co-author of “Every Vote Equal” and “Whose Votes Count.” He has addressed conventions of the American Political Science Association, National Association of Counties, National Association of Secretaries of State and National Conference of State Legislatures. He is a graduate of Haverford College, where he serves on its Corporation. He and RepresentWomen CEO Cynthia Terrell are parents of Savanna, Lucas and Rebecca.
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I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Richie a few weeks ago for the CityBiz “Meet the Change Leaders” series. Watch to learn the full extent of his democracy reform work:
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Martin Luther King Jr. used his personal turmoil to become a gerat leader.
Mesirow is the founder of the Elected Leaders Collective.
History’s most legendary leaders took their inner struggles and turned them into strengths to unite us. In contrast, the most reviled leaders allowed their inner turmoil to project outward, harming us. As leaders today, we each face a choice: Who do we want to be remembered as?
Figures like Abraham Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela stand as pillars of transformation and healing. Their journeys were not paved by chance but by deliberate inner work, where personal growth intertwined with public service, a concept Aristotle called "arete."
Arete, a core Aristotelian value, represents the intersection where personal talents and passion meet public needs, elevating the public interest above personal gain to achieve one's highest potential in service. These leaders did more than succeed — they embodied transformation and built legacies that extended far beyond their own lives. This was no accident, and it was not magic.
Each of these lionized leaders was a prominent figure even in their youth. But it was only through bouts of depression, the struggles with polio, electoral losses, near-death experiences or incarceration that they transformed into something greater — leaders who discovered their arete.
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It's not about the physical challenges you face but how you respond to them. Like Mandela, MLK, the Roosevelts and Lincoln, you can transform your struggles into the source material for growth. These leaders didn’t merely endure their hardships; they used them as a microscope into their inner world, connecting empathetically with others and emerging from their chrysalis, ready to serve with the entirety of their being. This is a long road, a hard road and an uncertain road. But it is also the only path to transforming society — and, in the process, becoming legendary.
Interestingly, the cosmological gift of rising to a higher calling is inner peace. Like Viktor Frankl, who found inner purpose, community, clarity and empathy through his inner work in the external hell of Auschwitz, these leaders turned their prisons into paradises in their minds. They emerged not just as survivors but as examples of the possible, their personal struggles fueling their public missions.
In contrast, leaders like George Wallace and Joseph McCarthy took the easy path. They were the darlings of their time, attracting votes and attention by dividing us. They rose quickly, but their legacies are buried in infamy. Mandela stayed on Robben Island for 28 years, yet he lives in eternity. McCarthy rose overnight, but his actions left lives strewn in his wake, a dark memory in our history.
The communal meal takes time but leaves the palate and soul full. Fast food is accessible and cheap but leaves a trail of harm to your heart, your health and our environment.
Today, as leaders, we are all in a challenging place. The world is coming at us with public hate, threats, misinformation and division. It can be overwhelming, isolating and maddening. We can all retrench to our worst impulses — I have. It’s normal and not your fault. You were never taught how to make your biology work for you rather than you for it. As an elected leader, I found myself short-tempered, reactive, angry, stressed, anxious and wondering what I was even doing. Was it worth it? Then, I applied the inner work.
With new tools and approaches, each challenge became a key to unlocking greater potential. Each conflict became an opportunity to heal. My universe expanded. Gridlock became teamwork. Advisories became collaborators. My anxiety fell. My alcohol consumption fell. I became clearer, more courageous and happier. I accomplished more with my community than I ever could have done for it, and others began to notice.
There is a movement afoot. A small group of brave leaders — electeds, staffers and non profit workers — are ready to do something different. We want to break out of partisan gridlock, stop feeling angry, and start connecting, doing, and leading from the heart with joy and possibility because we have the tools, practices and community to do it.
We are committed to cultivating leaders who lead like Lincoln, train like Teddy, and win like Winston. If you feel the call to rise above and lead with purpose, your journey to your highest potential starts with the first step inward.
You already know who you are in your heart. You know your arete. We welcome you if you seek the magic sauce to manifest it and are tired of doing it alone.
