Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Political honesty during the holidays

candidate giving a speech

Kevin Frazier imagines the candidate speech we all long to hear this holiday season.

Image_Source_/Getty Images

Frazier is an assistant professor at the Crump College of Law at St. Thomas University. He previously clerked for the Montana Supreme Court.

The holiday season lends itself to wishful thinking. With that spirit in mind, I’m asking Santa to help the American people identify and elect a candidate willing to deliver this speech:

My fellow Americans,

I don’t have all the answers. The problems we face today cannot be solved by a couple of tweets nor by a single party. From artificial intelligence to zoonotic diseases, the threats to our well-being have picked up speed, increased in complexity and spread across borders. I wish simple solutions existed. I admit that I’m often as puzzled and surprised by the size and scale of the problems we face as you.

So, though I cannot promise you answers, I can make the following pledges: We will recruit the brightest experts from across America to help us monitor and understand the risks we face; we will collaborate and coordinate with our allies to ensure that the global community is acting in unison; and, we will update you quickly and honestly along the way.


You should also know that I’m going to make mistakes. Although I’m confident that we’re going to increase our capacity to study and solve problems, these policy issues are like Jenga pieces – moving one piece can have significant and unpredictable effects on the larger structure. In an ideal world, I could prevent my team from causing any structural instability; in our current world, wobbles and shakes are inevitable. I won’t hide those from you. Instead, I’ll let you know about missteps as quickly as I let you know about steps forward. In return, I plead for your patience. I know that’s a lot to ask for in an age of drone-delivered pizzas. Nevertheless, your trust is essential to this approach to governance.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

I’m also going to have to make trade-offs – to pick winners and losers. This is the roughest part of my job. Though some decisions will have uncertain results, others will very clearly impact certain communities more so than others. Again, I’d much prefer to only make choices that increase the well-being of everyone. We don’t live in that world. I’ll tell you now that when I confront those trade-offs, I’m going to err on the side of our kids. Decisions made decades ago have fudged up the future. This generation and the ones that follow it will need all the help they can get to overcome the potholes we created and failed to cover.

At this point, I know I’ve lost some of you. For those still reading, thank you for bravely considering a different kind of politician. This campaign faces stiff headwinds; it’s akin to a sailboat launching in the middle of a hurricane. There’s a route through the storm, but getting there will require a lot of teamwork and a lot of discipline. I hope you’ll join my crew. I need you and I believe America needs our commitment to a better approach to solving our collective problems.

If you’re still on the fence about whether to join this cause, I urge you to consider how much the status quo has cost us. Our inclination to pick sides means we’re constantly operating at less than full speed. Our bias toward certainty means we’re failing to recognize the substantial uncertainty we face. Our acceptance of a stagnant system means we’re making complex policy problems even more difficult to address.

Let’s dare to learn together, to work together and to bring about a better future together.

Happy holidays.

Read More

Kamala Harris greeting a large crowd

Vice President Kamala Harris is greeted by staff during her arrival at the White House on Nov. 12.

Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Democrats have work to do to reclaim the mantle of change

“Democrats are like the Yankees,” said one of the most memorable tweets to come across on X after Election Day. “Spent hundreds of millions of dollars to lose the big series and no one got fired or was held accountable.”

Too sad. But that’s politics. The disappointment behind that tweet was widely shared, but no one with any experience in politics truly believes that no one will be held accountable.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joe Biden and Hunter Biden

President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden stepping out of a bookstore in Nantucket, Mass. on Nov. 29, 2024.

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Pardon who? Hunter Biden case renews ethical debate over use and limits of peculiar presidential power

The decision by President Joe Biden to pardon his son, Hunter, despite previously suggesting he would not do so, has reopened debate over the use of the presidential pardon.

Hunter Biden will be spared potential jail time not simply over his convictions for gun and tax offenses, but any “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period Jan. 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”

Keep ReadingShow less