The much-honored sportswriter, Roger Angel, writing in 1972 about baseball, while reflecting on sports, said, “Sports are too much with us. Late and soon sitting and watching—mostly watching on television—we lay waste our powers of identification and enthusiasm and, in time, attention as more and more closing rallies and crucial putts and late field goals and final playoffs and sudden deaths and world records and world championships unreel themselves ceaselessly before our half-lidded eyes. Professional leagues expand like bubble gum, ever larger and thinner, and the extended sporting seasons, now bunching and overlapping at the ends, conclude in exhaustion and the wrong weather.”

Fifty years later, Angel’s 1972 lament is especially biting.  I recall it for the millions who play inside rather than outside. As Angel’s “time thinned product” invites boredom, today’s owners have spent billions on their boyhood fantasy, cynically pushing their captive audiences to buy more, pay more, and now bet more. It is said the all-in cost of an NFL game is $350-$600 for two persons, for example. The all-in cost of gambling is unknowable.

Bob Costas, a 29-time Emmy Award winner, and recognized as the National Sportscaster of the Year eight times, in a recent interview on sports gambling by his father said there was “a lot of trauma in our family life because he had a volatile temper and the mortgage was often riding on how his bets went….. he didn’t bet on, you know, cards or poker games or crap games or go to the racetrack. He bet on baseball, football, and basketball games.”

There was a time in the early 1970s when I played poker with five or six guys. During football season, we would meet at a friend’s business, and he would give us the Sunday football betting card. It was done quietly—betting on sports was illegal.

And there were the bets with my Dad. We would always bet on the Army-Navy game—he had been in the Army, so I always had Navy. The numbers were digestible; as I recall $10 tops (1950s dollars). I come to this topic initiated, but boy, how times have changed. Too often, stimulation has become the game.

Now my loyal ChatGPT assistant reports that “Online gambling is undergoing rapid, double-digit annual growth—driven by expansion in the U.S., mobile-first strategies, and immersive technology adoption.”

I suspect some of the growth momentum is caused by the micro-bet. Major League Baseball is investigating two specific pitches that Cleveland Guardian pitcher Luis Ortiz threw. Both pitches had a higher-than-usual number of bets placed on them — action that was flagged by a betting integrity firm.

Yes, there are essentially an infinite number of ways you can bet on sports these days. One of them is a micro-bet about what the first pitch of a given inning might be: ball, strike, swinging strike—well use your imagination.

As we “lay waste our powers of identification and enthusiasm,” our ultimate animal spirit object, money, has become the stimulus. The game becomes ours. We either win or lose; who cares who wins the game on the field or in the gym? We get to play regardless of how inanimate we choose to be.

Oh well, the cynical win. The new owners with their billions on the roulette wheel of life. They are the games rights holders; the networks ultimately deal with them. The rights holders mostly own monopolies. Viewers might find an off-brand football league, but of course want to watch their NFL team.

And then there are the middlemen who handle the transactions and the State agencies that provide the gambling licenses—they get a cut too. Maybe we should throw in that part of the health care community that intercedes with the addicted. Maybe that is the final cut.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Shabang! The world’s richest man declares that he is going to start a new political party—America. Thoughts, from a registered Independent.

America’s prosperity, its root, is competition. We don’t want just one seller—we call that a monopoly. Or even two; pejoratively, we call that a duopoly. In short, we want a quick drive away, multiple grocers, service stations, or whatever.

Now with the Internet having been trained by Amazon, a veritable bonanza is a click away. But, not in politics. Those whose occupation is ruling others write laws that block others. Sort of, “if you don’t like what I’m selling that’s just too bad.”

If we retreat into history or political philosophy, we find the excuses, often voiced in the United States. Some will say that laws in Europe, for example, result in too many Parties and confusion. Or splinter Parties that are embarrassing. Or, power is too diffused. Yes, many European countries make it easier to qualify for the ballot.

In the United States, it is damnably expensive to begin and ultimately qualify a third party and gain recognition on the ballot in a large number of States. Our two dominant Parties disagree about much, but together they block competition and both overspend—the arrogance of concentrated power.

Physics told Musk that catching a rocket returning from space so it can be used again would be exceedingly difficult, but possible. He did it. Making billions of dollars is certainly not easy—he did it. And accumulating supporters and detractors by the millions is not easy, but he has also managed to do that. We all know there are ceilings in human affairs; Musk likes to defy them and sometimes proves us wrong.

In announcing the formation of a new Party, America, Musk said:  “I am generally hopeful because I believe there are millions of voters who want a third choice. Who want to go beyond the Right and Left hardcores. Who wants, on the conservative side, to get beyond the shifting sensibilities of Donald Trump and on the more liberal side, not to have its values hijacked by AOC” (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez).

But, politics and Elon Musk have not been a harmonious pairing. He was all for Donald Trump and now he is adamantly against him.  He views policy positions as either true or false. Most often they are not. Politics is not physics. It is messy because trying to create some level of cohesion in the midst of clashing points of view is really hard.

Where do you compromise on abortion? Or the shifting views on the importance of immigration given incendiary rhetoric? Or committing our troops to at least the appearance of being ready to fight for principles? Or, perhaps most importantly, which programs should we eliminate or downsize even though supported by strong lobbies and well-positioned Members of Congress?

Or how do you find personalities that are both compelling and comfortable with diffused power? Is it possible to be both? Or do we need versions of out-sized personalities whose North Star is the unilateral use of power?

If the word moderate is frequently used in third-party arguments, and it is, what does it mean? Is moderation defined by what a Party or candidate is against or can moderates pull together logic, needs and wants into an actual platform? Or, do they just want more or less than the dominant Parties?

And considering the name of his new Party, can America be hijacked as the name?  And if so should the Party go back to the founding documents and attempt to animate the principles in specific programs? As compelling as the flag and patriotic music are, they do not spell out the terms of governing.

And, can Elon allow others to share the spotlight?  Can he raise money with the necessary funds to outline philosophy and programs? Or is this just one more solo act in an orchestral setting?

Now this is the point where various commentators begin to handicap the potential of success. Most are negative. I’m not ready to say that Musk will fail because others have. His company, SpaceX, caught a descending rocket going 17,000 miles per hour. Not bad. However, achieving sustained viability for a third party will be exceedingly difficult and require actual collaboration. If this is a Musk-dominated initiative, it will fail.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

It is hard for me to fathom. When did the White House and all the honor that goes with it become insufficient? Why would a President be selling things using his historic title and its symbolism conferred by the voters?

In case you are unaware of President Trump’s merchandising job, please take a look: https://gettrumpfragrances.com/. Or go further and check out his offerings on Amazon. Artificial intelligence reports that he has 54 offers of branded products for sale.

And let me recall as prologue the 33rd President Harry Truman who left the White House in 1953 for his family home in Independence, Missouri. The home was his principal asset. Trump, in contrast, was said by Forbes to be worth approximately seven billion dollars in 2024.

Truman, after leaving the White House, was offered high-paying corporate board positions among other ways to increase his wealth. History recalls his response:

“You don’t want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it’s not for sale,”

Yep, that is a long time ago. But isn’t that where humanity goes to discover the base-line of morality? And if that is too big a word, what about honor? Or decency? Should we worry that generations following ours will regard service as one more financial transaction?

Going back a much shorter time recall Colonel (honorific) Tom Parker who managed Elvis Presley and then marketed him after his death. He even sold “I Hate Elvis” pins to profit from both sides.

I think Trump’s merchandising activity should be put to a vote to test the question—see if the people (voters) support the exploitation of the revered White House symbolism. An up or down vote on a resolution. We want a sense of the Congress as the public’s representatives.

The resolution, if it is kept simple, might be: “We, in the 119th United States Congress, knowing of the merchandising of the White House and its principal occupant, state our disapproval.” (Examples follow).

Now I know the language is sparse so undoubtedly drafts will replace drafts and maybe draw in President Donald J Trump’s wordsmiths. Almost regardless of the eventual outcome, Members of Congress will have to go on record. The President’s heretical departure from tradition will be tested. As will our Members of Congress.

Perhaps all lines of decorum have been erased. Maybe devotion to an individual requires submission. I doubt it, but a straight up test of the White House as a merchandising wing of the Presidency should be put to those who vote on our behalf.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

As I reflected on a dinner several nights ago, a simple fact was recalled: I had not talked about my earliest jobs, well, forever. But in dinner conversation new friends seemed interested. So let me put my reflections in context.

I was a 13-year-old cotton picker. I picked cotton before most farmers could afford a  machine that did it. By the way this was a Saturday morning job—leisure time cancelled. Video games—not around. However, sweat unlimited.

Plowing out boxcars came next and this was before the Grain Haulers of America union protected its workers from wheat dust.

Both jobs were humbling. I was working between school terms with young guys whose technique was much better than mine. I didn’t cost the grain elevator much which made the job possible. Today, companies are forced to pay the minimum wage. In New York it is trending by government mandate toward $30 an hour—productivity be damned.

In the cotton fields, beyond endurance, women with very small children were on their knees (you walked on your knees at plant level while picking) and then retreated to the cotton wagon to nurse their babies.

And I will never forget day three: plowing out rail box cars at the local grain elevator. “Plowing out” refers to getting every last kernel of grain out of a railcar filled with wheat from Oklahoma and Kansas. The wheat dust was thick.

On day three I was at the doctor’s office with a respiratory illness due to breathing in the dust. I had refused to use a face mask because the regulars didn’t wear one. My next day back at work I was masked. When I would change the filter (soft cotton) the other guys could see the moist black coating. The filter was a proxy for our lungs. By the next week many had bought a mask and showed up looking like me.

Which brings me to America and its constantly shifting realities. The grain elevator’s union made sure in its next negotiation that the workers were provided masks by the company—labor defeated capital. And in the case of cotton picking, machinery was soon to take over. Free markets do not quit spinning.

All this was my Dad’s plan; I am sure with Mom’s counsel. Later he made it possible for me to drive to Alaska and work on a maintenance crew at Elmendorf Air Force Base. I look back on these experiences—thank you Dad. Mom and Dad were instrumental. And, I was also getting my first lesson in the effectiveness of collective action.

Increasingly it is said artificial intelligence (AI) will cause the youthful job market to shift to making and doing things because AI will replace a lot of the “white collar” jobs. My Dad was not concerned with AI, but he did want me to understand sweat and the importance of learning how to do things correctly.  I was particularly conscious of the latter but maybe moved more decisively by the former.

The old days are not going to come back. But if I still had a teenager in the house, he/she would be bothered by lessons from my Mom and Dad. The 20th Century helping to instruct the 21st.

In reality few are going to earn a living playing some version of sport, yet today many youth spend much of their summer at camps that teach the next rung up the ladder. Or, an upper-class family summer might be spent in overseas travel. Or an internship with a friend of the family.

My parents wanted me to understand the world I was going to live in. My Mom, for example, made me take typing with the girls; it turned out to be useful as I typed email while many of my peers dictated to their secretaries.

The world today is changing much more rapidly. Along with changes we all talk about, privilege is being downgraded. Distinctive talent is in demand. Productivity has become an even more essential part of a business plan. Up and coming companies must compete with the scale of the big ones; big companies have less cost in their inventory.

Life happens. Markets spin. Intelligence is aggregated; algorithms analyze it. The answers do not yield to our desires. It is best to have a 360-degree understanding of how life works. Maybe Harvard should add a trade school.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Several days ago New York City’s dominant political party—Democrat—selected Zohran Mamdani to be its candidate in the general election for Mayor. Many were startled anticipating the much blemished Andrew Cuomo the likely winner. He, after all, had the support of big wigs including Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg.

Mamdani by most accounts is charismatic. He identifies as a Shia Muslim. He ran as a Socialist. He called for making busses “fast and free”, for a million new housing units and to have the City get into the grocery business so prices would be lower.

Mamdani’s selection followed a week of news about the upcoming marriage of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez in Venice, Italy. The stories were filled with excess the couple will purchase with millions of dollars.

The selection of Mamdani and the Venice marriage are heavy with cultural dissonance. I can easily imagine quite a few people who voted for Donald Trump being aghast at the wedding extravaganza, while being shocked and dismayed by Mamdani’s victory.

It will be said by strict devotees of capitalism that Bezos earned his right to be extravagant. Certainly Amazon, the company he founded, is enormously successful. So too Berkshire-Hathaway, the company Warren Buffet built. Buffet’s lifestyle is said to be modest and frugal. Is this generational? Or just personal?

Presumably, President Donald Trump’s success is some sort of composite.  His residences: Mar a Lago and the White House (the house George Washington built). And regardless of what he is called—right winger, populist, pragmatist—he is certainly transactional. If you worship at his rhetorical altar, you are a winner.

America can be confusing. And politics often sends conflicting messages. And one of today’s conflicts encircles truth. A quick analysis (today’s preferred format) had Iran’s nuclear work sites we bombed devastated. Interestingly the Pentagon said not so quick—the setback was months not years. I suspect default bias will have Trump supporters choosing his description. History would say give us a few years.

And I suspect more conservative voters will say of Mamdani’s success—“it could only happen in New York”. My take: we have entered a new generation of what the Hollywood scriptwriter’s muse blasted: “I’m mad as hell and can’t take it anymore.” The movie Network and the muse Howard Beale.

New Yorkers were fed up with Andrew Como and the debilitating cost of living. And joining New Yorkers, most are fed up with the extravagance embedded in the celebrity marriage. And Donald Trump?

America was founded on principles; we should all periodically refresh our memories of the founding documents. Maybe many who attended the “No Kings” rallies were fed up in our departure from the founding principles.

Yet today in Washington and elsewhere transactionalism is dominant. Regardless of the dramatic fiscal chasm Mamdani’s programs would create, he knew how to tap the “mad as hell” voter. And in Washington the President is counting on political transactionalism to deliver the “big beautiful bill”. If you are a Republican member of Congress and vote no Trump will come after you. Fiscal principle: be damned.

A culture shaped by winning regardless of principle produces celebrities not heroes. Recall in an interview Trump said of John McCain, who was a Vietnam war hero: “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, okay? I hate to tell you.”

As commentators frequently say: here is my take. John McCain was a hero. Celebrity billionaires are undermining capitalism. And our lack of fiscal discipline will result and I hope soon, in a voter backlash or, as Donald Trump might say “the biggest backlash ever.” Our excesses will demand it.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

The moment was vivid. I have written about it before, so apologies if this is your second time through.

The year, 1986. The President: Ronald Reagan. On the other side of the table, Secretary of Commerce, Malcom  Baldrige. Me, well I was talking to the Secretary about coming to work for him heading the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (they didn’t get advice from a naming consultant).

The first question from Secretary Baldrige: “Al, Washington is a god-damn tough town. Everybody is after a piece of your ass. How do you rate yourself for aggressiveness?” Over time I learned what he meant, but this is about a condition in our capitol city, not me.

There is a finality to government. Sure you can appeal a decision but if your appeal is through the courts check your bank and patience accounts and if it is a legislative solution you are seeking, good luck with that. Laws with national reach are a big deal.

One of the laughable characteristics of the white hot feud between President Donald J Trump and Elon Musk is that for months they have been playing each others cheerleader. And the praise can be summarized with this word: GREATEST! So here we are, in a brief period of time they went from greatest to worst. From “Greatest of All Time” (GOAT) to “Terrible on Any Day” (TOAD).

President Trump has proved to have an uncanny sense of timing and themes. Make America Great Again (MAGA) wins the theme contest moving ahead of The New Frontier and New Deal. And generally Republicans have not done well with political themes. In the case of Ronald Reagan he was the theme riding in from his ranch to catch the bad guys.

In the case of Donald Trump his political life began on an escalator not a horse or maybe as the all-knowing judge of talent on The Apprentice. Regardless, he is in his second term—as politics go that is a winner. And now the Democrats are trying to figure out their future.

Had I engaged in this kind of urine contest both my grandparents and parents would have sent me to my room. I use this generational reference point as both Trump and Musk are acting like how Trump is said to have characterized Musk (50% genius and 50% boy). Both are acting like teenage boys.

My difficulty with the Trump/Musk partnership is simple: conflict of interest. It is said that Musk has given Trump something over $250 million to chase his political ambitions, and some of Musk’s businesses’ biggest clients are government agencies.

As I type, people who make money writing columns and the like are choosing winners and losers in this contest of invectives. Let me join in. The loser is the United States of America and its position in the world. We are making democracy look like a fractious car auction.

But of course, the game is which of the two will come out better. The overwhelming answer is Trump. Certainly, Musk has a lot to lose. For example his Tesla stock lost 14% of its value on Thursday. Although it appears by the end of Friday’s trading day that most, if not all, of the loss will be recovered. Reuters attributes the bounce back to the cooling of the dispute.

Indeed, maybe that is a useful measure—the market value of a stock. Or the polling numbers of a politician. Maybe that is where our democracy is at the current moment.

So here is my short-term take. Musk is the loser as his favored status as a businessman close to the President has taken a hit. The President in that limited sense comes out better but as time goes on maybe he loses support as a percentage of supporters wonder about his judgment in letting Musk roam through the White House as if he was the First Lady.

Back ever so briefly to Secretary Malcolm Baldrige. He would be aghast; he was a real patriot.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Churchill, Jan. 20, 1940: “Only Finland—superb, nay, sublime in the jaws of peril—Finland shows what free men can do….Everyone can see how Communism rots the soul of a nation; how it makes it abject and hungry in peace, and proves it base and abominable in war.”

America still has the single most valuable 21st-century ally in the world—Ukraine.

Ukraine has had to be both stalwart and entrepreneurial in combating Russian aggression. If, in the aftermath of the attack by Ukraine on Russian military assets, the Trump Administration does not revitalize American support for Ukraine, it will be an irreducible stain. Ukraine has demonstrated the importance of courage and adaptive learning. It represents the biblical story Americans love—David versus Goliath.

My admittedly superficial review of pluses and minuses is not in any way intended to be comprehensive, but a starting point for questions. In other words, the attack by Ukraine on Russia yesterday is an event filled with lessons.

First rank military prowess can be measured by money spent, technology and manufacturing controlled, strategic ground occupied and in my view realism understood. North Korea, for example, has impressive assets but is in a fog of autocratic vanity.

Ukraine has perhaps the leading asset of military strength. It has been fighting a much bigger foe on the terrain of technology transformation. It doesn’t really have an air force unless you count its drone inventory. And most importantly, consider its drone manufacturing prowess and experience-based utilization. And those assets not only count, but are potentially the most important in the rapidly transforming world.

President Trump values Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and apparently we have an agreement for their mutual exploitation. What the President should add to this bargain is the more consequential one—active alliance.

Yes, I understand that Trump doesn’t like Vladimir Zelensky. He even let his spear carrier, Vice-President Vance, dress him down in the White House with the cameras rolling. Historians will note this vain estrangement and I believe will count it as a low point in the Trump administration’s foreign policy.

But now Trump has additional facts for his analysis and I hope a reset. I would simply say to the President, effective leaders are often opportunists and now is your chance to recognize Ukraine as an ally not a nuisance.

America’s greatness is often measured by our international leadership grounded by moral principles.  We should reassert our leadership in a new alliance with Ukraine.  Hoorah for courage and for demonstrating the trajectory of obsolescence of what much of the world still counts as military strength. America has much to learn from Ukraine.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Who knew that the 21st Century would offer ambitious politicians a dull and inattentive version of the governed? Yes, you and me.

Or, perhaps we are simply a more forgiving generation—not confused or inattentive, just generous. Or forgetful. Or maybe simply comfortable with outsourcing what the law says is our responsibility.

The political party of Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) and Bill Clinton allowed a small coterie of politicians to maintain a fiction: Joe Biden was equal to a second term. “Cancel the primaries,” Biden’s spear carriers said, “let’s have a coronation.” The elders went along at the expense of the nation and their Party.

Or, the political party of Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan nominating a person whose transparent behavior revealed a self-aggrandizing narcissist claiming he would make America great again.

Truth is Biden and Trump were co-dependents. Biden in his shrunken condition acting like FDR while Trump was covering up his many deficiencies with bombastic slogans  aimed at exploiting our biases.

So what is it about us? Are we so distracted by our anxieties and indulgences that we no longer have time to govern? Are we so oblivious, that having our national credit degraded is just another 24 hour headline without impact? Our elected representatives promise to lower the debt; cycles come and go and the debt balloons. Oh well we will pass it on to our kids.

Are conservatives no longer conservative? Populism is never conservative. It is opportunism dressed up as regard. Sure there are both popular and rational arguments that pair but it is not a philosophy of governance. And when New York Times writers and others speak of various populous exclamations as “hard right” or “far right”, they are revealing bias not intelligence.

On the other side of the jagged line is the Left. I wonder whether identity politics is more important than unity politics? Giving way to the outer edges of pressure groups (sometimes misnamed as “progressives”) inevitably leads to countervailing estrangement. Severe cleavages create chasms that are spectacular in nature but result in ugly gaps in society.

Let me repeat: Governance. With a capital G. Governance that balances revenue and expenditures. Governance that  can manage weapons of mass destruction. Governance that is operationally strong. Governance that must reconcile ardent advocacy to gain majority support from a diverse electorate.

Regarding President Trump, maybe his cleverness cancels our common sense. For example, tariffs are on and then they are off. They penalize Canada more than enemy nations. And when the CEO of Walmart suggests he might have to pass some of the taxes on goods along, the President threatens him.

In the meantime he concentrates on the petroleum kingdoms of the Middle East whose Oligarchs, understanding his interior needs, lavish praise and do deals.

President Donald J Trump will make history in one category: the amount written about him while in office.

Blah, blah, blah! Attack, defend. Often written by people with attitude not experience. I get that, as people with experience often give the benefit of the doubt to people in the big jobs. The jobs are tough; they know that. They are more likely to use long-term measuring sticks.

Let me repeat that the jobs are not easy. The mission is important or it would not be done collectively (all together). There is generally a law behind it. Its origin is a finding that a State-by-State solution will not work. How, for example, could we defend our nation if all of our defense assets were in State national guards? And Maryland’s health is inextricably tied to Missouri’s.

Beyond the President here are some others that hold big jobs. The Secretaries of Defense, State, and the Department of Justice. They face almost minute-by-minute competing claims—do more, do less and here are the reasons why. “Hold the line, I just got call from the White House.” Or the Congress. “Cancel the meeting so I can prepare for a hearing.” In the meantime what does the data say; yeah, for example, flight patterns in and out of Newark’s airport.

In last Friday’s Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan’s column, Declarations, was titled: “Broken Windows at the White House”. “Broken Windows” was the title of a theory that said if you don’t keep up your building’s appearance, you risk being caught up in a spiral of bad things. Generally the description was used to characterize failing neighborhoods in big cities.  As Noonan noted, “The neighborhood will deteriorate, and crime will spread.”

She went on to note a lot of “broken windows in the Trump administration”. I need not list them; anybody who reads just the headlines is aware. But I want to go back to big jobs and their occupants and the Congressional vacuum.

Elon Musk’s DOGE spent the first three months of the Trump Administration rampaging through the operational parts of the national government. Daily the operational side of government would be declared broken and/or corrupt. It is hard to imagine the demoralization that resulted.

While Musk was on the move, the US Senate was quizzing Trump nominees to head various departments of government. The cast of characters came from people whose main service to Trump had been to massage his ego. Go down the list: Hegseth, Kennedy, Gabbard, etc.

This is a broken windows cast. They are not seasoned managers of difficult organizations or circumstances. Hold on.

My hope, perhaps unrealistic, is that at some point enough Members of Congress, in the President’s own Party will wake up to the facts at hand, operationally, fiscally and beyond. There is some evidence of pushback in the Republican House Caucus on spending; my advice: stand up to the President. Do not fold. If it causes you to lose the next election, so be it. Better a patriot than a fool. And, for sure, that goes for both political parties.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

It is hard to know where to start, so let me do so with a warning. My thoughts include a promotion. A promotion to look beyond the obvious.

My part-time work in high school included a gig helping a Disc Jockey at the local radio station—specifically KSIM at 1400 on the AM dial in Sikeston, Missouri. My last two jobs were navigating the analog/digital divide in government and business.

My high school job was to retrieve records during a call-in record show. Now, of course, databases dictate what is played—the human factor is collectivized. Or, you bypass radio altogether and go directly to Spotify, where you have curated (the word of the day that has lost its meaning) your own playlist. And I suspect today if you engage on radio you don’t call, you text. Pardon the interruption.

But, now that is the way the world works—technology creates, destroys, and often stands in between. How many of you rent movies from Blockbuster or get movies in the mail from Netflix? Or watch the movie of the week on network TV?

How many of you rely on broadcasting with attendant radio and TV networks for your distractions? Incidentally, in the old days if you wanted to listen to music on the radio, you had to listen to a news segment. It was required as a part of the broadcast license.

Much of the media business is the distraction business. And today when relationships drift toward being  distractions their replacements become primary. Implications?

So let me dress up as a distraction. News distracts us from our daily routine. It generally happens elsewhere and is rarely all that good. News is a good distraction in a democracy but in recent years it has been largely replaced by political themes. Podcasters discover bias, program to it, and call it news delivering it to various electronic devices we carry around.

Create and destroy. Maybe one day probing newscasts delivered by real journalists will reappear. One can hope. In the meantime, much of the creative community who want to use their talents in unbiased news coverage find demand for their talents diminishing by the day.

If you watch news on TV, it is likely you are overwhelmed with products for, let me say, older people. And try finding a real newspaper that covers your community. The metaverse took over classified advertising and newspapers began to deteriorate and then die.

I could go on and will. I have a Chesapeake Forum gig in early June and am looking forward to going through the “looking glass” to discuss the social and cultural implications of destruction and replacement.

Topics will include the implications of society’s device fixation. And, social media and texting replacing conversation and much else.

And, as noted, the replacement of the media we grew up with. Encyclopedias have been replaced by accumulations that change minute by minute. The disappearance of editing as news is a tweet away.

And not wanting to leave anything out of this tease, think about databases—the stuff of the cloud. How do we protect ourselves and how does our government protect us from being found out or shut down? Or the ubiquity of porn? Or the addiction of games?

And I will throw in “free speech” and its constitutional protection. Exceptions needed for the new world?

I suspect most of you will just stay home. Understandable. Existential questions interfere with sleep and defy remedy. And maybe artificial intelligence will decide what human reasoning cannot. Talk about “through the looking glass.”

Regardless, the world is changing, and horror of horrors: it’s hard to turn off this fact.

If you want to learn more and participate further in this discussion, join me with Chesapeake Forum lifelong learners.  You can learn more and register for the course here.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

To

Mea Culpa. I was at least partially wrong when I titled my book, circa 2019, Culture Leads Leaders Follow.

A central point in the book: people who run for important elective office organize their brains and rhetoric around what is culturally acceptable. Or to put it another way, marketers of one sort or another and performing artists, not elected officials are primary influencers.

Successful candidates for the big elective offices begin by raising enormous sums of money. A high percentage of the cash is then spent on a polling firm to tell them what is or is not popular. If their budget is big enough, they will hire a marketing team of political specialists who prepare speeches, advertising videos and talking points for interviews. Mostly these are the steps of wannabes not leaders.

An overriding question is what has happened to America’s leadership class? What are the forces that have often turned it classless? Why are we now, the voters (judges) yelling at each other? Is dispassionately discussing public affairs even possible?

Cultural and political forces today often push toward the performative. How do you get above the noise of the day? Every candidate must cope with this reality and many of the most promising choose not to—performative politics as predation.

Enter President Donald J Trump. He knew, intuitively, that he had to push the line, all lines. The successes of his business and TV career bore his name. He was the brand and his brand bore no relationship to conventional politicians who generally earn their reputations by giving speeches, winning elections and holding offices. Trump to the political world, “you’re fired”.

Trump’s only questions related to how far he could go and to what extent he could create the narrative for his various campaign promises. The narrative choice was brilliant: Make American Great Again (MAGA). And he began.

In his most recent election, he used President Biden’s carelessness at our southern border to rebrand immigrants. Through the generations, immigrants enjoyed a favorable image of striving for the betterment of their new home. Now Trump was rebranding them as toxic. He appropriated the worst, drug dealers for example, and accused the powers that be of facilitating their drug pushing.

Job frustrations? It’s not your fault the foreigners are taking your jobs. Or, if you are a white male, you are the target of discrimination. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), an awkward attempt to make up for past sins, became today’s sin.

Wealth? It is reported that 10% of the adult population owns 50% of America’s wealth. Trump, sensing an underlying anger promised no taxes on tips or social security income and recommended tariffs on foreign goods to win back jobs.

Sex? The high priests of the culture had decided to normalize and promote conduct many think is wrong. He skipped across the political perils of abortion while using sexual apostasy as a targeted weapon.

And on and on. And while he got a lot of the facts wrong his receptive audience did not go to the library to check his references. Fact-checking that should matter, seems a remnant of an earlier era.

Plus, what Trump called the Mainstream or Lamestream Media was vocally nonplussed by his antics, and they often performed as if he had scripted them. After all they were perceived as pushing open borders and sexual immorality. They became the opposition.

What followed were attempts by Institutionalists to criminalize his conduct. While there were grounds for impeachment, his loyal base saw him as a victim of an attempted coup. While hard to pinpoint, it is clear that a tipping point had been reached—politics as we had known it was over.

In the Republican Party that became clearer as two institutionalists, Niki Haley and Ron DeSantis, were defeated. In the broader electorate, Trump was sufficiently popular for the electoral math to work. He was, of course, aided by a Democratic Party leadership class that was so fearful of “next” that a low-functioning incumbent President controlled much of the nominating apparatus.

And here we are. America has a President who takes pleasure in making his opponents livid while calling them “lunatics”. We are more than a hundred days out and while many voiced 100 day report cards, I simply worry about how Trump has affected both the social and political culture because yelling at each other across hardened barriers is not characteristic of a healthy democracy. I have never been part of a significant success that was not collaborative.

I am not a sociologist, but I have been working at the intersection of government and business for more years than I would prefer to count. I keep trying to see a new way forward, but in my mind it is hard to find. A catastrophe of some sort might be the only enabler; and who knows what it will enable.

Warren Buffet, the supremely successful founder and leader of Berkshire Hathaway, understanding the importance of his company’s successful culture, chose Greg Abel as his replacement. According to the late Charles Munger, Buffet’s longtime partner: “Greg knows the companies culture.” Indeed. Success is maintained by a healthy culture.

So what is it about our political culture? We now have a President who disdains collaboration. Here are some questions I think we should engage:

1- Has what I will call Trumpism become our political culture?

2- Have Judeo-Christian values lost their force?

3- What about organized religion? Has it become disparate affinity clubs attracting fewer and fewer as many of its leaders prove to be power seekers not healers?

4- Has language lost its influence? Do intemperate words and uses make any difference? Was America great or at least better when the F—word was not the defining adjective?

5- Who do we believe in a world defined by detachment? Artificial Intelligence? Algorithms? Neighbors?

We are lost. Who will we be when we are found again?

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.