Stephen explains how part of the American Right has emigrated from righteous anger to rage, which is both unwise and un-bliblical.
Sarah Palin
What Sarah Palin—And Every Leader—Needs to Know, Part III
As you’ll see from my previous two blogs, I’m excerpting a few pages from the book on Sarah Palin I wrote with David Holland. In our last chapter, we made some recommendations to Governor Palin. They apply to all leaders. With Game Change now playing on HBO and talk of a brokered Republican Convention involving Palin growing more serious every day, it is a good time to ponder her leadership style and apply what we learn to our own way of living. By the way, you can order the book here.
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#5: Critics are not enemies.
We have all had this experience. We are listening to a speaker who has been stung by a critical word. He is hurt, enflamed. He uses his speech to strike back. He hits hard and does not let up. But he is talking past us. We do not know what has been said and we do not understand why we are subjected to this angry tirade. Moreover, rather than being impressed with the persuasiveness of his argument, we leave more impressed with how small and vain this man is. He has lost us, and all because he could not rise above, could not let criticism go unanswered and unavenged.
It was the great missionary statesman E. Stanley Jones who said, “My critics are the unpaid guardians of my soul.” It is a truth that would serve Sarah Palin well. There is wisdom to be heard in the mouth of one’s enemies and she would be well served by knowing this. Critics hold up a mirror we would not otherwise see, allow us a clarified view of ourselves that we cannot get any other way. We have to discriminate, of course, and pick out the diamonds of wisdom from the dunghill of hate. Still, there is truth to be had and the wise leader learns to face criticism, discover the truth in it, and change accordingly. It distinguishes greatness of soul from vanity and rage, carefully crafted performance from genuine largeness of heart. Sarah Palin is capable of these, but only if she refuses to be embittered by those who strike at her.
#6: The poor and the needy are conservative concerns, too.
It is an oddity of modern politics that while conservatives believe they have the solutions for the poor, they seldom mention them. Conservatives prefer to speak in general terms about a healthy economic, about opportunities to achieve, and about the character that leads to prosperity, but rarely do they mention the poor or the underprivileged. It is almost as though they think that to mention the poor is to play into liberal hands. What they end up doing, though, is losing the battle in the popular mind by yielding the high ground of compassion and benevolence to their opponents.
Sarah Palin knows better. She comes from a family that, while far from poverty, fought hard to meet its needs. Both her parents worked a variety of jobs to serve the family and the Heath obsession with hunting was about more than sport. It was about feeding six hungry mouths. Then, when she married, she lived on a blue color workman’s salary and often struggled to make ends meet. In her family experience and in decades of life in the Mat-Su Valley, she has seen want and poverty and she knows the interplay of injustice and low character that can lead to both. She can connect these issues to conservative answers in a manner that few politicians today are able to achieve.
She should break out of the Republican manner of years and become a champion of conservative solutions for the poor. She should reintroduce words like “poverty,” “needy” and “hurting” to the Republican lexicon and prove the power of non-statist solutions for one of the desperate needs of our time. As a mother, as an oil field worker’s wife, and as a woman who has been willing to know and love the destitute, she is qualified to do—and perhaps courageous enough to do—what most politicians on the right are not: challenge the political left on the home turf of underprivileged America.
#7 Know your boundaries.
Sarah Palin is a woman of scripture and so she knows the pleasant words of Psalm 16: “My boundaries have fallen in pleasant places.” They are words that suggest the contentment, the effectiveness and the peace of living within ones range of abilities. It is a truth she should grasp anew as she steps on the stage of whatever is next for her in life.
Most people who become prominent reached their position by challenging barriers. They are African-Americans who defied racism or women who charged glass ceilings or the many who overcame some potentially defining flaw in their lives. They are not cowards and they are not weaklings. They have known their battles.
Yet the one of the great lessons of their victories should be the power of concentrated force. You do not break through by applying strength broadly. You penetrate at a defined point. You force through at a pinprick and then you broaden once you have broken out to the other side.
Many who have reached prominence have not learned this. They interpret their victories as an affirmation of their strength in all things. Rather than learning their lane and gaining a clear understanding of their boundaries, they overreach and attempt what is not theirs to achieve.
Sarah Palin has done this. She is a gifted woman who has had much success and this could leave her with the sense that she should charge Sarah Barracuda-like into realms that are not hers. It would not serve her well, as her embarrassing television interviews have shown. Yet, if she could take stock of her strengths and gain a clear understanding of what she is not gifted to do, she could engage the challenges of American society where she can do the most good.
The alternative is a messiah complex, what Harry Truman called, “Potomac Fever.” It is believing oneself the answer to all things, assuming that there is no realm which should go unchallenged. But this leads to defeat and distraction from the few arenas in which victory could be sweet and meaningful.
There is good to come from Sarah Palin’s presence on our national stage, but only if she confines herself to those realms for which her God, her life and her principles have prepared her.
What Sarah Palin—And Every Leader—Needs to Know (Part II)
As you can read in my previous blog, when I saw HBO’s Game Change about Sarah Palin, it reminded me of the book David Holland and I wrote in 2010. We finished that book with a chapter listing some principles Palin needed—and needs—to know. I offered two of those principles last blog—and here are three more. They are good principles for every leader to ponder and apply.
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#3: Do not run away from Faith. Articulate it.
It is conventional wisdom in some quarters that politicians should de-emphasize their religious lives in deference to a secular society. This reasoning contends that the public wants to know that their leaders have a meaningful faith, thus assuring lofty values and morality, but that they don’t want that faith to be too visible. This view has led many a politician to publicly distance themselves from their most cherished beliefs and it may have moved Sarah Palin to downplay her faith to the point of extremes in her autobiography, Going Rogue, as we have seen.
There is a counter argument, though, that the public is eager to know what their leaders actually believe but are nervous about unexplained religious platitudes. When George W. Bush said that his favorite political philosopher is Jesus Christ “because He changed my heart” and yet let this stand without explanation, the public was left wondering how this private belief might shape the life of the nation. When Ronald Reagan began pondering the eventuality of Armageddon, the conflagration that some students of the Bible believe will bring history to a violent end, many Americans were naturally concerned about what he might conclude. And Jimmy Carter spoke of being “born again” but took no pains to explain what this might mean in for his role in the White House.
The lesson is not that modern politicians should run away from their faith. The lesson is that modern politicians should explain their faith and what it might mean for their conduct in office. Sarah Palin is uniquely equipped for this. Despite negative press to the contrary, she is a well-read, well-pastored, well-taught evangelical who could easily articulate the meaning of her brand of faith for public policy. She should turn from the dumbed-down approach she chose in Going Rogue and become the articulate evangelical politician that she is perfectly positioned to be.
#4: Dare to grow.
It was hard to watch. In a January, 2010, interview, Fox news star Glenn Beck asked Sarah Palin a simple question: “Who is your favorite Founder?” Palin, flustered, answered, “You know, well, all of them, because they came collectively together with so much….”
Beck interrupted. “Bullcrap” he said. “Who’s your favorite?”
Palin kept going. “…so much diverse and so much diversity in terms of belief, but collectively they came together…. and they were led by, of course George Washington, so he’s got to rise to the top.”
It was not the first time that Sarah Palin had flubbed an interview and by her own admission. Yet this one, and all the ones before, provides her with an opportunity: Grow. Deepen. Increase. Right there in public view. Read and learn and broaden and put the fruit of it on public display.
There are those who will urge her otherwise. Some in American politics believe that it is best to stay in the shallow end of the pool. It is safe there and free of embarrassment. There is no need to admit that there are things you don’t know. Cover your ignorance and charge your staff to make sure your lack of knowledge is never exposed.
Yet this approach is not befitting a serious leader who intends to effect profound change. It is also not worthy of Sarah Palin. She should draw from her strengths. She is an aggressive reader and she retains what she learns. This is her heritage. She should build on it. She should read and let the public hear about it. She should consider an Oprah-like, conservative book club and so become identified with great literature and great ideas. She could even call the occasional summit of notable conservative minds and tell them, “Look, I’ve been in public office for more than a decade and I don’t know some of the things I should. Many Americans probably feel the same way. Let’s talk about the seminal ideas and solutions for our time.”
There is no shame in not knowing. There is even no shame in not answering well. There is shame, though, in not knowing or answering well the second time around.
#5: Critics are not enemies.
We have all had this experience. We are listening to a speaker who has been stung by a critical word. He is hurt, enflamed. He uses his speech to strike back. He hits hard and does not let up. But he is talking past us. We do not know what has been said and we do not understand why we are subjected to this angry tirade. Moreover, rather than being impressed with the persuasiveness of his argument, we leave more impressed with how small and vain this man is. He has lost us, and all because he could not rise above, could not let criticism go unanswered and unavenged.
It was the great missionary statesman E. Stanley Jones who said, “My critics are the unpaid guardians of my soul.” It is a truth that would serve Sarah Palin well. There is wisdom to be heard in the mouth of one’s enemies and she would be well served by knowing it. Critics hold up a mirror we would not otherwise see, allow us a clarified view of ourselves that we cannot get any other way. We have to discriminate, of course, and pick out the diamonds of wisdom from the dunghill of hate. Still, there is truth to be had and the wise leader learns to face criticism, discover the truth in it, and change accordingly. It distinguishes greatness from vanity and rage, carefully crafted performance from genuine largeness of heart. Sarah Palin is capable of these, but only if she refuses to be embittered by those who strike at her.
What Sarah Palin—And Every Leader—Needs to Know
In 2010, my dear friend David Holland and I wrote a book entitled The Faith and Values of Sarah Palin: What She Believes and What it Means for America. I’m deeply proud of it and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We did not write it because we are Palin supporters. We wrote it because Palin’s presence on our national stage exposes “fault lines” in American culture. We wanted to explore these lines, retell her story, and project the meaning of it all into the future a bit.
I love what we got on the page and I loved running around Alaska with Dave—having tea in Palin’s parents’ living room, meeting with her pastors and friends. It was a ball. And we grew to love our country even more because it is where a gifted, ambitious woman can rise.
In our last chapter, we dared to make some suggestions, to offer some truths that would serve Governor Palin well. After watching HBO’s Game Change this week, I thought of this chapter and decided to offer it as a series of blogs. So, here are the first two of seven principles we offered. They are more relevant now than ever—for Palin, for me, for every leader.
By the way, our book is as cutting edge now as it was in 2010. I hope you’ll pick it up at your bookstore, or order it from Amazon here.
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#1: Love ennobles politics.
This may seem a sickly sweet, syrupy thing to say. It may sound too much like Bill and Hillary Clinton’s “politics of meaning” or George H. W. Bush’s “thousand points of light.” These are the types of phrases that speechwriters love for their euphony but which fall empty upon the public’s ears. To speak of love anywhere in the proximity of politics may simply sound like more of the same.
Yet, any statesman who is serious about leading well, who is intent upon leaving a lasting impact upon society, must find the highest, most genuine motive for their politics. They must sort through the popular rhetoric just as they sort through the crowded rooms of their own inner life to discover the linear connection between their times, the needs of those they serve, their skills, and the political passions of their heart. This is how statecraft grows from soul craft.
It does not require an exhaustive review of Sarah Palin’s political career to discover that she is at her best when she is leading out of love. Her best speeches grow from her love for Alaska and her people. Her most dramatic acts of service have come from a desire to end the corruption that grew like a cancer on the civic body she loves. She has shown herself most noble in the care of her family, in her welcoming of a special needs child, in her honor for her friends. All of this is about love.
From the time of John McCain’s summons, Palin has been on the attack. This is what that critical moment in the 2008 election required, what Republicans were desperate for and what wrung the most thrilling response from the crowds. Palin rose to the call. She transformed bedeviling Obama’s every act into an art form and later served both John McCain’s senatorial race and the Tea Party movement with large doses of well-crafted venom.
There is more to her than this, though, and she must re-discover it for herself before the clock runs out on her current plan of assault. She knows what love is. She grew up in a loving home and entered public life largely for what she held dear rather than for who she wanted to destroy. She must recover this inspiration and do it now, remembering that while politicians carp and spat for a season, the work of statesmen endures for generations, ennobled by love of truth and love of those they serve.
#2: Hang a lantern on your weaknesses.
It is perhaps too much to expect genuine humility from politicians. They arrive at their heights by fiercely believing in themselves and it is not surprising that this should sometimes bleed over into pride and even arrogance. Tending these weeds in a politician’s soul is a matter for spouses, close friends and clergy. The public, however, should not be surprised that their leaders are flawed in such a way. Even Winston Churchill once wrote to his wife, “I am so devoured by egoism that I would like to have another soul in another world and meet you in another setting.” It should comes as no surprise that the lesser lights of our own day might feel much the same.
Yet there is a bit of wisdom that has come down through the years and which, if not a fruit of character, ought to at least be a tactic of self-preservation for public figures. It is this: Hang a lantern on your weaknesses.
The smart politician describes his faults before his enemies get a chance. He admits his failings with a laugh before his opponents have opportunity to portray those failings in dark and dangerous terms. This is not only a means of disarming the opposition but of endearing oneself to a forgiving and similarly flawed public.
There is a case in point to be imagined from the life of George W. Bush. It was widely known that he was beset with some syndrome of verbal confusion. Some experts said he was an undiagnosed dyslexic. He was famous for mangling terms like “strategerly” and for summoning his listeners to choose “the high horse or the low road.” This weakness on the part of the sitting president was a raucous playground for late night comics but it was a serious inability to communicate which tragically damaged his presidency.
Suppose he had decided to hang a lantern on his weaknesses. Suppose that rather than cover his inabilities he decided to have himself tested, admitted publicly that he had wrestled with a minor form of dyslexia all his life, and committed himself to address the issue. How this might have endeared him to an American society ever cheering for the underdog. How this would have made his rise to the presidency seem an even more astonishing feat. And what might this have meant for dyslexic school children the world over that an American president faced similar challenges?
This is a lesson that Sarah Palin must absorb. She has built her public success on her “Sarah Barracuda” reputation, on the strength of an inner force that blows past failings and flaws as though they do not exist. But this is unwise in public life, particularly in a media age where every blemish and discoloration is transmitted in high definition. Better the knowing laugh, the homey expression of self-deprecation, and the confession of weaknesses the world already sees. This will require a new skill set for Sarah Palin, and it will feel awkward and unnatural for a time. But it is more than posturing. It is the fruit of wisdom and a reaching for humility that at least reflects a respect for virtue if it is not a virtue in itself.
Stephen Update
Keeping up with Stephen is not easy, but here’s an update. Stephen is currently writing a book on Oprah Winfrey’s religious impact on America and at the same time he is doing a wide variety of media to promote the book he co-wrote with David Holland, The Faith and Values of Sarah Palin. Perhaps you’ve seen him on CNN, Fox, CBN or ABC discussing this new book. Meanwhile, he is completing his year-end schedule of speeches, which includes a corporate event in Jacksonville, Florida, and a lecture on current trends in Washington DC. Early next year, he and Bev will travel to Guam and the Philippines before Stephen goes to Peru to help with the upcoming presidential election there. When he is home, he will be writing two books, one on strong manhood drawn from great men of history and one on a contemporary culture shaper. He will also be working with a short list of clients, helping them hone their speaking skills and craft their message in their field.
The best way to stay up with Stephen other than these updates is on Twitter. You can follow him at @MansfieldWrites.
Mansfield/Holland Pen New Book on Palin
Stephen Mansfield and his writing partner, David Holland, have just completed a new book about Sarah Palin. Though most books dealing with the former Alaska governor either attack or defend her, Mansfield and Holland’s book seeks to explain what Palin’s beliefs and the popular response to them exposes in American culture. Entitled The Faith and Values of Sarah Palin: What She Believes and What it Means for America, this new book releases in late September.
