Senator gives vision of America's future

Speaking Monday night in the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Senator Bill Bradley mapped out his vision for the future course of American society, a journey that idealistically ends in Billings, Montana.

Bradley, D-N.J., related an anecdote about a friend who was devastated when she lost the 1994 election for governor of Montana, a race she truly believed she would win. She was not able to put the loss in perspective until she learned that her running mate had once survived a dangerous flight across the state on his way from a campaign speech to his home and family in Billings. The lights went out in the two-seater plane, and the only way the pilot managed to navigate his way to Billings was to follow the moonlit trail of the Yellowstone River.

From this story, Bradley has come to view Billings metaphorically, as a "pluralistic-multiracial, multicultural, multiethnic-democracy, where people not only vote but participate, a democracy with a growing economy that takes everybody to the higher ground." Such optimistic thinking prevailed throughout Bradley's speech, "Rethinking American Leadership," the inaugural lecture of the newly created Lester Crown Lecture Series in Ethics.

Speaking in the Sanford Institute's Fleishman Commons, which was literally packed to the rafters, Bradley outlined the styles of leadership needed if society is to advance to this "higher ground." Chief among such requirements, he said, is the collective use of public power to influence politics.

"Leadership is not something that is done to people, like fixing teeth... With the right person at the right moment, it is something that is very special," he said, offering the enthusiasm for Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats as an example of effective leadership that provided "a sense of hope." Bradley also illustrated the need for widespread government participation by borrowing a quote from former First Lady Barbara Bush: "What happens in your house is more important than what happens in the White House."

Political activism is stunted, however, because American society lacks trust in the economy, in racial harmony and in politicians themselves, Bradley said. Stagnant wages are a main cause of distrust in the economy, he said, and new jobs do not compensate for that. "I was talking to a TWA machinist about how, in the first year of the Clinton administration, 1.6 million new jobs were created, and this man said to me, 'Yeah, and my wife and I have four of them.'"

To restore Americans' faith in the economy, an "economic security platform" is needed to "give people a minimum of security on which they can ride these turbulent economic times," he said during the question-and-answer session after his speech. Such a platform would offer health care for laid-off workers and their families, portable pensions and continual educational opportunities. People also need to start questioning the role and definition of "the corporation" in America, Bradley said. "We gave corporations limited liability in exchange for what we thought they would give us. We judge them by financial balance sheets, but they affect us in more ways than that."

Race relations, meanwhile, must be enhanced on a more personal level, Bradley said. "How do you have better race relations without engagement? How do you have engagement without candor? How do you have candor without trust?... These are the responsibilities of each individual unto another individual, and nobody else is going to do it for you."

"He addressed race from the perspective of community and engagement instead of divisiveness, which hardly any politicians nowadays do," said Trinity senior Christian Grose, former president of North Carolina College Democrats.