Leading at the Top beyond Appearances: The case of John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives

In the wake of President Obama's mission to execute Osama bin Laden, Speaker Boehner issued a statement complimenting his rival in the White House. In contrast, Sarah Palin gave George W. Bush all the credit. The Speaker, too, could have gone with political expediency. Therefore, for the Speaker to have publicly acknowledged Obama's victory as America's more generally involved political self-discipline. Speaker Boehner had sought to apply self-discipline, moreover, to his decentralized leadership style from the moment of his swearing in. Given the consolidating nature of power, such a leadership style in the U.S. House of Representatives faced considerable head winds.

On January 5, 2011, John Boehner was sworn in as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He had promised to decentralize the power that had been so tightly held by the previous Speaker and others further back.  Indeed, it had been Gingrich's micromanaging of Boehner in 1995 that may well have prompted Boehner to want to give more power to lower-level party leaders and committee chairs. Boehner even promised to better provide for the minority party in that proceedings would be more open and fair.  Of course, obstructionism, favoritism, and in general the realities of governing all can be used to consolidate power. The exigencies of Boehner's position could have trumped any bad memories of having been one of the low men on the totem pole.  It is only human nature, after all, to identify with and prefer the present at the expense of the past. Hence, the concept of the net present value of money. Additionally, consolidating power into a few select hands may seem necessary to getting the trains to run on time.

Indeed, Boehner might have been tempted to add trains. Noting the inherent difficulty in having one legislature (albeit consisting of two separate chambers) governing an empire-scale union, the anti-federalist (and pro-commerce) Agrippa of Massachusetts wrote in 1787, "A diversity of produce, wants and interests, produces commerce, and commerce, where there is a common, equal and moderate authority to preside, produces friendship." (Agrippa, Letter 8, 4.6.30). Agrippa was bemoaning the consolidation that he feared would ensue from the powers granted by the U.S. Constitution to Congress (at the expense of the state governments). Agrippa was by in large right. The dual-sovereignty in American federalism has largely been eclipsed by decades of encroachments by the general government. It would have taken self-discipline for Congress not to have encroached when it could. Similarly, self-discipline is required for a Speaker of the House, which is a constitutional office, to preside, which is to say, to look to the overall interest of the whole rather than to engage in partisanship.    In spite of Boehner's intentions to return some power to the states and to decentralize his power in the House, he was from the start already likely to reverse himself in practice. The nature of power may well be paradoxical: those who love it most tend to find it most offensive to give even some of it up to others. It takes maturity for a leader who does not crave power to trust others in decentralizing it; I can scarcely imagine a person who climbs the difficult mountain to the head of a governmental body (or business corporation) to suddenly work on the newly won power. So I am led to wonder, what exactly was Boehner's motivation in publicly stating his vision of a more decentralized power structure in the U.S. House of Representatives? Perhaps he knew that people out across the lands would approve of him as a result. There is the appearance of power and there is real power. I'm not convinced that the citizens who vote in a republic are able to get behind the appearance, if efforts behind the scenes are intensely invested in keeping the public awash in appearances. 

Sources:

Naftali Bendavid and Patrick O'Conner, "New Speaker Vows to Share Power--a Tricky Proposition," The Wall Street Journal, January 4, 2011, pp. A1, A6.

Agrippa, in Herbert J. Storing, ed., The Anti-Federalist, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985, p. 243

See Skip Worden, Ethical Leadership, a booklet available at Amazon. See more generally, Essence of Leadership, a book available at Amazon.

Auto vs. Oil Industries on Emission Standards: Putting a Part Above the Whole

When a company or an entire industry skips over the good of the whole—the public good—in lobbying for legislation that only reflects the needs or desires of individuals (qua consumers only), the society itself (and even the Earth) is slighted and thus more at risk. For the good of the whole is more than just the cumulative needs and desires of individuals in part because the latter do not take into account the wider effects of their choices. When an individual company or industry takes this point into account and rebuffs favorable legislative proposals because they would do too much damage to society and/or the planet, social responsibility is at hand. Companies or industries that do not are thus irresponsible from the standpoint of the whole, which, through government, is justified in keeping an eye on them (especially in making transparent their efforts to influence legislation and regulation. The American auto and oil industries can be distinguished in this regard.

“When the Trump administration laid out a plan” in 2018 that would have eventually allowed “cars to emit more pollution, automakers, the obvious winners from the proposal, balked. The changes, they said, went too far even for them.”[1] Too far even for the obvious winners—an amazing statement, considering that companies and industries generally try to get as much as they can in terms of deregulation and favorable laws.

Another industry, however, fueled by the efforts of Marathon Petroleum, “was pushing for the changes all along.”[2] The campaign’s main argument “for significantly easing fuel efficiency standards” was “that the United States [was] so awash in oil” that energy conservation need no longer be a worry.[3] This statement blatantly misses the point that the standards that were in place then were also to reduce emissions of CO2 from what they would otherwise have been from entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

Interestingly, the American oil industry must have missed the memo on the continuing increases in the emissions.

In fact, 2017 saw a record amount of emissions added to the atmosphere; the Paris Accord in 2015 was already proving to have been a failure.  Issued in early October, 2018, a “landmark report” from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “paints a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought.”[4] The report states that if “greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, the atmosphere will warm up by as much as 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial levels by 2040, inundating coastlines and intensifying droughts and poverty.”[5] This was the context in which the oil industry was running “a stealth campaign to roll back car emissions standards.”[6]

The industry’s rationale reduced everything to the needs and desires of individual customers with no consideration of the impact on even them, not to mention humanity—including possibly its very survival. “With oil scarcity no longer a concern,” Americans should be given a “choice in vehicles that best fit their needs,” read a draft of a letter that Marathon helped to circulate to members of Congress over the summer. Official correspondence later sent to regulators by more than a dozen lawmakers included phrases or sentences from the industry talking points, and the Trump administration’s proposed rules incorporate similar logic.”[7] Of course, that a “quarter of the world’s oil is used to power cars, and less-thirsty vehicles mean lower gasoline sales” was not missed on either Marathon or its industry as a whole.[8] But the notion of a whole apparently stopped at the industry level; externalities beyond that, even one bearing on the future of mankind, were apparently of no concern.

Marathon Petroleum even “teamed up with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a secret policy group financed by corporations as well as the Koch network, to draft legislation for states supporting the industry’s position. [The] proposed resolution, dated Sept. 18, describes [the then] current fuel-efficiency rules as ‘a relic of a disproven narrative of resource scarcity’ and [urges that ‘unelected bureaucrats’ shouldn’t dictate the cars Americans drive.”[9] The resolution’s language doubtlessly included the council’s talking points, which, in staying on the “resource scarcity” rationale for standards, neglect the obvious link between emissions and climate change. Furthermore, the smack on “unelected bureaucrats” demonstrates no regard for government as standing for the interests of the whole when externalities from cumulative individual decisions are too much from the perspective of the whole. To be sure, with industries swaying legislators and regulators in democracies, laws and regulations can indeed benefit a part at the expense of the whole, but this deplorable flaw does not negate the need to protect the whole from parts from exploiting conflicts of interest. Unlike the auto industry, the oil industry sought to exploit its conflict of interest by putting its narrow interest ahead of that of the whole where the whole supposed to be paramount—in the halls of government.

I suggest, therefore, that heightened scrutiny is warranted where a company or industry (or the business sector—still but a part of the whole) seeks to influence lawmakers, regulators, or the general public in line with the private (profit) interest. This is especially needed in a culture that is generally in line with its business sector’s values. People and government officials alike in such a culture (such as that of the U.S.A.) find it difficult to realize the need to see that such conflicts of interest are not exploited. In fact, in my book, Institutional Conflicts of Interest, I argue that a conflict of interest is inherently unethical even if it is not exploited. A few other scholars on the subject argue in contrast that if a conflict of interest is not exploited, no harm is involved, but I contend that another reason exists why arrangements or situations that include conflicts of interest are unethical. I actually met one of those scholars on the Loyola campus in Chicago, but once in his office, I found he only wanted to talk about Obama. So much for scholarly exchanges.

---

1. Hiroko Tabuchi, “The Oil Industry’s Covert Campaign to Rewrite American Car Emissions Rules,” The New York Times, December 13, 2018.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Coral Davenport, “Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040,” The New York Times, October 7, 2018.

5. Ibid.

6. Hiroko Tabuchi, “The Oil Industry’s Covert Campaign to Rewrite American Car Emissions Rules,” The New York Times, December 13, 2018.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

Investor Assessments of Political Events

Although the various investors in the financial markets doubtlessly pay great attention to important political events, such as were a state in the E.U. to default on its bonds, I suspect that market analysts overstate the importance of more commonplace political events. For example, the New York Times reported in late September 2012 that investors were shifting their portfolios to reduce risk out of uncertainty regarding the upcoming American elections and the ongoing negotiations in Congress to avoid the huge budget cuts and tax increases set to begin automatically at the beginning of 2013 and run for a decade. Additionally, fears that E.U. leaders might hesitate on moving forward with the bailout program oriented to indebted states were prompting investors to be more risk-averse. Generally speaking, analysts were “anticipating that politicians may not act until forced,” both in the U.S. and E.U., “setting the markets up for weeks of angst.” In my view, this account is overstated.

“Right now, we’re much more defensive than we were a few weeks ago,” Martin Leclerk of Barrack Yard Advisors said at the time. He had shifted 20 percent of his company’s assets to the safety of cash. More broadly, investors were cashing in their gains, according to the Times, “on riskier stocks and moving into bonds and safer stocks, like consumer discretionary companies that are not as susceptible to a downturn in the economy.” Rather than presume that all this stemmed from uncertainty regarding the American elections or even the anticipated budget sequestration of the U.S. Government and the E.U. bailout program, I submit that the investors were taking a general reading of the global economy to assess how much economic growth would be likely in 2013. In this regard, the announcement by the Chinese government of stimulus spending is more significant than who wins what offices in the U.S. or whether the E.U. officials are really hesitating on Greece and Spain. The minor presidential election drama fueled by an all-too-innocent media and even the manipulatory threats by E.U. leaders as if jockeys bending the whip to get Greece to pony up rather than lax off are both dwarfed in financial importance by assessments of how the world economy as a whole is likely to do. Specifically, the question is whether the lower growth in China will be tolerated by government officials, and if so, whether that growth would be enough to offset the sluggishness in the E.U. and U.S. The U.S. economy in 2013 would not likely hinge on which party wins the White House because the other party typically has a veto in the U.S. Senate thanks to the ubiquitous filibuster. In the E.U., hesitations should be read more as efforts to manipulate certain recalcitrant state governments than as serious attempts to scuttle the bailout program. Elections do matter and programs do change, but the trajectory based on the status quo has such tremendous gravitational pull that even mandates tend to get watered down by the time they get implemented.

 Does expertise on these make one an expert on politics?  

Therefore, I suspect that the market discounts political “news” that you and I are presented with as “important” and “vital.” Often times, the importance is magnified in order to sell ads. The world economy is remarkably steady-state, and wise investors undoubtedly take a long-term perspective rather than allowing themselves to become ensnared by the titillating excesses fomented by the media. To be sure, jolts such as the effect the financial credit-freeze in September 2008 had on world trade do matter in terms of contractions in the world economy, and investors are smart to become more risk-averse in anticipation of such periods. Even so, a near collapse of the global financial system can be distinguished from which corporate party wins the White House in a certain election cycle or how an internal tiff among E.U. leaders (or states) gets resolved. My point is simply that elections are not usually the beginning of major course changes (and I am not even sure those have such a bearing on the economy as a whole), and that squabbles in the E.U. do tend to get resolved somehow or other. Neither "event,"  therefore, is earth-shattering even if it makes for good television. I suspect that investors know this and discount the white noise accordingly.

Source:

Nathaniel Popper, “Fearing Fiscal Cliff, InvestorsCash In and Seek Safety,” The New York Times, September 28, 2012. 

Mitt Romney’s “About-Face" in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election: A Candidate’s Conflict-of-Interest

As was demonstrated in September 2008 as banks began to stop lending to each other even overnight, trust is the foundation, or grundlagen, of a market. The same is true in relationships between people. I would be surprised were a marriage ever the same after even a contrite spouse has had an extramarital affair. The same is true in politics; once the electorate has been lied to, it is very hesitant to remove the asterisk next to the politician’s name. The relevance of a politician’s extra-marital affair, such as the flowery lapse of Gary Hart or the sordid stains of Bill Clinton, is that the people conclude that they, like the wives, could be betrayed. Once established, a lack of trust tends to spread like an invidious cancer until it has encompassed the entire body politic. The shift is from justice to a lack of harmony on many levels.

Plato theorized that justice is the harmony within the rational psyche and polis (city, or country) as well as between the heavenly spheres (planets and stars)—the harmony between the rational and the vibrations of the spheres being in sync, which is justice itself. It follows that a person who lets his or her desires run rampant is in line with a squalid or aggressive city, and that neither of these shares in the musical/mathematic harmonious vibrations of and between the heavenly spheres. Lack of trust at the personal, business, or civic level can be said to be a symptom of the shift from the condition of harmony, and thus justice, to discord.

It follows that in a republic or union thereof, it is vital to maintaining justice (as harmony) that the electorate not be as sheep in taking in that which a politician claims regarding what he or she “really believes.” Once a candidate has stupidly lapsed in terms of trustworthiness, the electorate should be cognizant of the conflict of interest in the candidate later dismissing the substance of his or her real feelings or beliefs. In general, if a candidate’s statement is in line with him or her getting elected, a due dose of salt should be taken with that dish.

I have in mind Mitt Romney’s statement at a closed-door fundraiser in September, 2012 that nearly half of Americans don’t pay income taxes, view themselves as victims, and refuse to take responsibility for their lives, wanting to live off entitlement programs instead. Some seventeen days later, after even prominent office-holders in his own party distanced themselves from his view, the presidential candidate stated publically, “In this case, I said something that’s just completely wrong.” The question is whether this electorally-convenient “change in belief” is believable, given its consistency with electoral victory.

              Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, in an image tailor-made as "brand image" for generic consumption.  Reuters

For an electorate to be like sheep is to ignore the conflict of interest and take at face value whatever a candidate says. Simply being on television brings with it the veneer of official truth, so it is difficult for a “mere viewer” to discount the veracity of the celebrity’s claims based solely on one’s own subjective judgment. In a democracy, however, such judgments constitute popular sovereignty, under which governmental sovereignty is exercised by public officials. Therefore, the citizenry has a responsibility to place its judgment above the larger-than-life asseverations made by candidates or office-holders at mass rallies or on television. The deck, I fear, is stacked against popular sovereignty in favor of the agents, and television has exacerbated the problem even as the medium has enabled voters in an “extended republic” to “see” more of the candidates (or their marketed “brand” image).

To aid the electorate in its subjective judgment made in the privacy of each mind, a few principles may be helpful. First, as stated above, a candidate’s statement made in contradiction to an earlier one and in line with his or her electoral success on election day is subject to a conflict of interest. In other words, the claim that the candidate had been wrong should not be taken at face value if it, unlike the earlier claim, is in line with getting elected.

Mitt Romney’s statement disparaging nearly half of the electorate can reasonably be assumed to be at odds with him winning the election (even making such a statement privately may be a lapse of judgment effectively disqualifying a candidate from any high office in which using good judgment is crucial).  Romney's later claim that his earlier privately-expressed view had been “just completely wrong” can be taken to be in line with his political interest. This pattern, or "switch" in line with political interest, constitutes a conflict of interest because he could reasonably be assumed to be lying in his later statement in order to improve his chances of winning. That the earlier statement had been made in private whereas he announced his “change of heart” publically involves a second principle.

That which is said privately can be taken to have more credibility than that which is stated publically. This is a less direct way of looking at the conflict of interest. A candidate may express his or her authentic beliefs privately because doing so publically would not be in line with winning the election. The switch from private to public after the private statement is leaked is particularly suspect because it is reasonable to assume that the public statement is not genuine, but, rather, is geared to reducing “political damage.”  For the public to assume that the candidate has recognized his or her error and that the public statement is a sort of contrition ignores the conflict of interest. In other words, the sheep mentality is naïve, more a matter of idealistic projection than in what is actually motivating the candidate.

Self-governance, whether of a psyche or in a republic (or union thereof), includes governing one’s own fantasies and projections in order that one can more accurately assess candidates for office and office-holders. Here again is Plato’s notion of justice in the reason-governed psyche being in line with the reason-governed polis (electorate). Being intellectually honest in one’s assessment of even one’s ideologically-favored candidate can be said to be one of the duties of citizenship if self-governance is to apply both to a person and a republic. Letting candidates get away with double-talk is a case of an undisciplined psyche and electorate of a polity not worthy of government by the people.

Whichever way an electorate leans in its collective judgment in a given election, it is my hope that the judgment illustrates the best in popular sovereignty. It is essential, albeit difficult for a large electorate, to hold the agents (even as candidates) accountable to the will of the people, such that the collective will is rendered as clear as possible and that the agents implement it rather than assume (or presume) a superior position to it.

For more on conflicts of interest in government and business, see Institutional Conflicts of Interest, available at Amazon.

Source:

Colleen Nelson, “Romney Backs Off Remarks About the 47%”, The Wall Street Journal, October 5, 2012.