Stay In Your Lane

We have entered into a period of remarkable instability, both here and abroad.   Our political parties have been wrecked.  Traditional alliances have been shattered- Turkey, a NATO member, is now an enemy.  30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall,  one of the parties in our two-party system is about to nominate an undeniable admirer of the Soviet Union, Cuba and Daniel Ortega. And in the midst of all coronavirus is stalking the world and mauling markets.

To confront these disruptions, and have a successful outcome requires real leadership, with the West more or less on the same page, shoulder to shoulder, with each person playing their role.  In 1981, with the West in an economic funk, and the Soviet Union menacing, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Pope John Paul II each had a role in the recovery of the West and pushing back on Soviet aggression. 

The demands and challenges facing the West are even more complex than they were then.  But this time around, not only are we more divided, people and institutions are straying from their appointed roles.  I have an answer to all, if we want to navigate through this---STAY IN YOUR LANE.

·        Supreme Court.  Last week Supreme Court Justice complained about her more conservative colleagues, and accused them of a conservative bias.  Likewise, when Trump was nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg said of Trump, “He’s a faker. He has no consistency about him.  He says whatever comes into his head at the moment.  He has an ego.”  Just last week, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, presiding in the Roger Stone case, went on several rants, even going after Tucker Carlson.  Why would she even mention Tucker Carlson?  If you want to be a judge, be a judge.  If you want to be a politician or a pundit, be that.  But don’t mix the two. Stay in your lane.

·        Media.  Journalists have become the worst lane drifters.  As their business model has changed, rather than being reporters and investigators, they have become advocates and agenda pushers.   Rather than observing, questioning, and writing, they have thrust themselves in as players.  No one exemplifies this more than prima donna Jim Acosta of CNN.  Instead of reporting on news, he wants to BE the news. Media has destroyed its credibility by becoming a player on the field of play.

·        The Presidents.  Barack Obama routinely stepped into Congress’s lane. From DACA to JPCOA, Obama took over the role of a feckless Congress through the issuance of executive orders.  Donald Trump has done the same, mostly through Twitter.  He has diverted funds for border security.  His tweets about pending cases under the Justice Department purportedly Attorney General Bill Barr to contemplate quitting.  Losing Barr would be a disaster for Trump.  But he cannot resist drifting into someone else’s lane.  Again, stay in your lane.

·        The Administrative State.  Perhaps the most pernicious of all and most exemplified by ex-Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovich, who the Democrats hauled up to testify in their impeachment hearings. Yovanovich claims she “felt intimidated by the Trump administration (by his critical tweets) but offered no evidence of a “high crime or misdemeanor” in her testimony. Richard Cordray, head of the CFPA, tried to appoint his own successor, and the Trump administration was forced to go to court to remove him.  The Administrative State has, over time, become unmoored from the electorate and has taken on functions that belong to the legislative, executive and judiciary branches—accountable to no one.  The arrogance of Cordroy who believed that he could appoint a successor, and the disconnect of Yovanovich, who believed that she could make her own policy, and in each case independent of the administration, shows the contempt for the boundaries of their roles.

·        Pope Francis.  The spiritual leader of the Catholic Church has been pushing hard at climate change, open borders and international wealth redistribution. Jumping into politics and economics with both feet, Francis not only steps into other people’s lanes, he opens himself up to charges of hypocrisy by doing so.  Francis has not had inhibitions about levelling criticism at Donald Trump and other leaders that are defending national sovereignty.  Yet is noticeably silent when it comes to China, the biggest polluter and violator of religious liberty in the world.  Francis’s inability to stick to matters of spirituality has caused many Catholics (including this writer) to put their full participation in the Church on hold.

The West faces numerous difficult issues—economically, politically and militarily.   These challenges would be difficult to tackle even if there was unity and even if leaders stuck to their assigned roles.  Reporters need to investigate and report, not become an opposition party.  The legislature can’t let the president and the administrative state take over its job.  The Pope has to attend to spiritual matters, not politics.  The members of the Supreme Court can’t be out politicking.   Our problems are infinitely harder to solve when the lead players won’t stay in their lanes.