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.
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.
Get the tools.
Americans across the political spectrum have continued to ask about the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s connections among the political elite. (Angela Weiss/AFP)
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall at the Elks Lodge 188 on June 7, 2026, in Portland, Maine.
McConnell and Platner both feel entitled
The two men could not be more different. One, a Republican, octogenarian, seven-term Southern senator, the other a progressive, millennial Maine oysterman who’s never spent a day in elected office.
But Mitch McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky who’s been MIA for the past few weeks and Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate who’s facing calls to drop out of his race against Sen. Susan Collins, apparently do have something in common: an outsized sense of entitlement.
McConnell, who is 84 and not running for reelection, has been hospitalized for three weeks, and yet we still don’t fully know what he was admitted for or what his condition is. Per CNN, “his office has not disclosed a medical reason for the hospitalization or provided specifics on his health status beyond saying last week that he ‘continues to improve’ and ‘is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters.’ ”
While several legislators have said they’ve talked to him and insist he sounds strong, others have said they are completely in the dark. One MAGA influencer, Laura Loomer, posted ”High level source close to the White House tells me ‘Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.’ ”
Meanwhile, up in Maine, Platner has been artfully dodging calls from his own party to drop out of his race after several allegations of misconduct from women, including a sexual assault allegation from a former girlfriend, came to light. While Platner, who has managed to survive a Nazi-tattoo scandal, a sexting scandal, and several old tweets scandals, denies the allegations, he has not quit.
High-profile Democrats including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, the latter of whom had unsuccessfully hand-selected Maine Gov. Janet Mills to face Collins instead of Platner, have urged Platner to drop out, while other Dems have accused him of trying to influence the picking of his replacement.
Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson released a statement Tuesday, which said in part:
“Unfortunately, Graham Platner’s team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate nor in determining what this process looks like.”
Both incidents show a deep lack of accountability to voters, who in one case deserve to know whether their senator is capable of performing his duties, and in another deserve a candidate who isn’t being accused of crimes, bigotry and deception.
The offensive and odious entitlement of both McConnell and Platner stands out not because it is particularly unique among today’s political class. Tom Kean, the New Jersey GOP congressman, missed more than 100 votes, only sharing after a three-month mystery absence that he was dealing with depression.
Former President Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to disclose a hospitalization for prostate cancer surgery, flouting the established rules for Cabinet members and senior U.S. officials.
From Biden’s insistence on running for reelection despite his obvious cognitive and political weaknesses to Trump’s brazen flouting of laws and norms, few politicians seem to appreciate that their public service job comes with responsibilities to constituents, including transparency and honesty.
But both parties increasingly justify the chicanery, because the stakes of winning elections and keeping power are simply too high. But that’s no excuse. If we’ve learned anything over the past decade, it’s that character and accountability do, in fact, matter. And when we, the voters, stop caring about it, well, so do they.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.