Thomas Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader and Founder & CEO of the Daschle Group, visited the Leadership Studio at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health on March 8, 2016 as part of the Voices in Leadership series. (Photo by Sarah Sholes / Harvard Chan School.)

Common Ground Requires Uncommon Courage: A Conversation with Senator Thomas Daschle

by Michael Mensah

“Why is everyone so mad at Congress?” is the trillion-dollar question that has overcast the Capitol Building for more than six years. On March 8, 2016 former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) offered his perspective on this question and leadership more broadly as part of Harvard T.H. Chan School’s Voices in Leadership series. The day also marked International Women’s Day, and Senator Daschle fittingly implored young people heeding a call to public service — especially women — to have an “invincible determination” about critically engaging with issues that matter to them.

Watch former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s full talk with the Voices in Leadership series at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health from March 8, 2016

Thus far in the 2016 U.S. presidential race, a candidate’s performance has been closely tied to his or her ability to harness the widespread disappointment in governance among Americans. The dissatisfaction is well documented — over the last six years, Congress has endured approval ratings between 9 and 25 percent.[1] In contrast, on October 11, 2001, Congress enjoyed an 84% approval rating, the highest in the last 42 years.[2]

At the peak of Congressional approval ratings, Senator Daschle was Senate Majority Leader; at the time he guided Congress through the events of September 11th. As Senate Minority Leader a few years earlier, he presided over the second presidential impeachment in our nation’s history. Senator Daschle ascended to Senate leadership faster than anyone aside from former President Lyndon B. Johnson.[3] Having demonstrated a mastery of Congressional mechanics absent in our current Congress, Senator Daschle lent his uniquely informed perspective to a wide-ranging discussion of current politics with Professor Robert Blendon.

Former Senate Majority Leader and founder and CEO of the Daschle Group Tom Daschle sat down with Dr. Robert Blendon at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health on March 8, 2016 as part of the Voices in Leadership series. (Photo by Sarah Sholes / Harvard Chan School.)

When asked about how Congress has become so unpopular and dysfunctional, Senator Daschle explained using Peggy Noonan’s notion of the “protected and the unprotected.”[4] The protected — the successful, accomplished, and privileged among us — disproportionately influence our world without bearing the brunt of their influence’s consequences. The unprotected, on the other hand, wield less influence but bear the full brunt of those consequences. This situation allows disillusionment to fester unchecked among the unprotected, unfairness to manifest clearly before them, and candidates like Donald Trump — a privileged man — to harness their dissatisfaction toward his own ends.[5]

Senator Daschle went further, elaborating on specific obstacles keeping today’s congresspersons from better engaging each other and from better legislating for America. The constant need to fundraise means representatives and senators spend more time out of Washington fundraising than in Washington legislating. As Senator Daschle put it, the current members of Congress “leave on Thursday, come back on Tuesday, and try to run the country on Wednesday.” A lack of time together, according to Daschle, has led to a lack of Congressional togetherness.

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle answered questions from MPH student, Elizabeth Casstevens, MD, MS, FAWM at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health on March 8, 2016 as part of the Voices in Leadership series. (Photo by Sarah Sholes / Harvard Chan School.)

Perhaps fear of losing primary elections is why congresspersons are so interested in campaign fundraising. Senator Daschle noted several conversations with individual congresspersons that gave highly partisan, passionate and divisive speeches. They claimed to understand the importance of finding common ground, but spoke divisively because they could not afford being perceived as not “stand[ing] one’s ground”, lest primary voters cast votes against them, interpreting such compromise as capitulation.

However, Senator Daschle’s advice to the next generation of public leaders runs counter to leadership driven by fear. His four-part character test for public leadership includes: 1) resiliency, 2) innovation, 3) collaboration, and 4) engagement. Staying committed to the process, however murky it may become, is key to resilience. To drive his point home, Senator Daschle invoked a line from former Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish’s The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak: “they say, we leave you our deaths: give them their meaning.”[6] Whether on the battlefield, in civilian public service or both, many have given their lives to better the future of this country. To answer the question posed at the beginning of this article, we owe it to their memory to have enough character to put our country’s future above personal ambition.

[1] http://www.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx

[2] http://www.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx

[3] http://libguides.sdstate.edu/c.php?g=281633&p=1877987

[4] http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-the-rise-of-the-unprotected-1456448550

[5] http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-2016-authoritarian-213533

[6] http://www.loc.gov/teachers/lyrical/poems/dead_soldiers.html

For more from the Voices in Leadership (@VoicesHSPH) series at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (@HarvardHSPH), visitwww.hsph.harvard.edu/voices.

Story edited by Esther Velasquez