A National Park Service worker picked up trash along the drained Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol in the distance.
Photo: Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press
America has always managed to find ways to improve itself in the midst of—and sometimes because of—its most difficult challenges.
Will that be the case with the coronavirus? This crisis, sprawling and frightening in equal measure, undoubtedly will change public life. But how? And can some of those changes be for the better?
I put those questions to a cross-section of prominent American political and national-security figures. They responded generously, offering a variety of predictions and hopes.
Strikingly, by far the most frequently expressed hope was that the crisis will jolt the country’s political system out of its long bout of partisan paralysis—that is, that America’s elected leaders now will realize that they need to start working together more across ideological and party lines, and that American voters will demand as much. Whether that will happen—well, on that count there were varying degrees of optimism and pessimism.
What follows are excerpts from the answers I received. More extensive excerpts can be found online, at wsj.com:
James Baker , former secretary of state and treasury: “For several years now, I have firmly believed that the political dysfunction in our country is the biggest challenge that confronts us. If we are to effectively address the coronavirus crisis and other problems, Americans must once again learn to talk sincerely with one another about solutions to our problems rather than yell at each other about the cause of them. The current dilemma presents all of us with the opportunity to begin reversing this troubling trend.”
Robert Gates , former secretary of defense and director of the Central Intelligence Agency: “First, I hope one outcome will be to improve the social safety net, especially health care, for those unable to afford private health insurance. Maybe a mix of public and private, where anyone making over a certain amount would have private insurance (or pay for alternative government plans) and those under that amount of income could access at no charge a basic level of publicly funded health care. “
But Mr. Gates also worries that “social distancing and the spirit of community was already being weakened by social media and other forces. This crisis, where pretty much everyone is on his/her own and isolated by quarantine and stay-in-place orders, I fear will accelerate the deterioration of any sense of shared purpose, values and sacrifice. The notion that we are all in this together will, I think, be further weakened.”
Rahm Emanuel , former mayor of Chicago: “The two positives I see are that, rather than view the federal government as a problem, we might start to see it as a solution, as a net plus. And second, we might end this period of not investing in America.”
Sen. John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming: “China has finally been exposed….Never again will we allow ourselves to be dependent upon them for critical medicines, minerals, parts or products.” But Sen. Barrasso isn’t optimistic about an end to political divisions: “Given political history, cooperative politics will continue until we have safely gotten through the storm. Partisan politics will them return, by the time of the November elections.”
Douglas Elmendorf, dean, Harvard University’s Kennedy School: “I hope that this crisis restores Americans’ belief in the importance of effective governance. Around the world, governments with professional expertise, appropriate resources, and principled leaders will save lives and maintain prosperity—and governments without those characteristics will cost lives and sacrifice prosperity.”
Richard Gephardt , former Democratic majority leader in the House: “Change the electoral college to a national popular vote (and) adopt full or leveraged matching public finance of small contributions for congressional campaigns for any candidate who forgoes private fundraising…I understand those two changes sound unrelated to the present pandemic, but my thought is that when we face similar global and national threats in the future, it is essential that citizens trust their leaders enough to follow them.”
Jim Mattis , former secretary of defense: “If in this dramatic coronavirus age we don’t recognize what our revolutionary founding fathers saw so clearly—we either hang together or we hang separately—we will not have a government of, by or for the people. People will continue to be elected because they are ‘anti’ something. But you can’t govern just being anti; a government must be for something.”
Kenneth Duberstein , White House chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan: “The American people will realize that this is a global village and, while all politics is local, to quote [former House Speaker] Tip O’Neill, the reality now is that all politics is international. What happens in Kalamzazoo impacts what happens in Beijing. What happens in San Diego impacts what happens in São Paolo. If Americans understand this as a result of the crisis, it will force our system to develop reality.”
The Prominent Americans Elaborate
Here are further excerpts from the answers prominent Americans provided when asked how the coronavirus crisis might change public life, and whether some of those changes could be for the better:
James Baker, former secretary of state and treasury: “When we inevitably get past the current health crisis, there will be many other difficult problems to resolve. We must whip our economy back into shape, better prepare to guard against future pandemics, and find solutions to many other difficult challenges that have gone unaddressed for far too long—like immigration reform, our fiscal debt bomb, global climate change and the fact that critical antibiotics and rare minerals are controlled by a country that doesn’t play by the rules.
“Those challenges will be hard enough to resolve even if we end our political dysfunction. But if we don’t, it will be even more difficult to successfully advance on any of them. At the end of the day, it is up to each of us as citizens of this greatest nation on earth to demand a return to the national unity that for so many years made us so strong and so successful.
“Regardless of our political party affiliation, we should only support candidates for public office who reject identity politics which only divide us by race, ethnicity and gender...”
Robert Gates, former secretary of defense and director of the Central Intelligence Agency: “The fecklessness of the federal response will add to people’s frustrations and anger at Washington even as the standing of governors and local officials is enhanced because of their promptness in acting and decisiveness in using the tools they had.
“Internationally, I think there will be a further decline in multilateral efforts to address problems as each nation looks after itself and—as with Italy—sees no help coming from partners (such as the European Union). The crisis will accelerate the decoupling of the U.S.-Chinese economic relationship. The Chinese, despite their nefarious role at the outset of the crisis, will be a beneficiary of the crisis because of their supply of medical needs to other countries (especially in developing countries but also places like Italy) and their propaganda blitz glossing over their early actions and claiming credit for beating the virus at home and then ‘selflessly’ reaching out to help others. This will be contrasted with the slow, fumbling and disjointed (U.S. government) response focused solely on the U.S.”
Sen. John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming: “We are a strong and resilient nation. We will weather this storm…I also think physical-source based education will forever change. If you can complete high school or college remotely, why pay such much more to do it on site? Working remotely will fast forward dramatically as a result of the experiences of so many of the nation doing it, depending on how long this lasts.”
Richard Gephardt, former Democratic majority leader in the House: “Change economic policies: Offer substantial corporate tax reduction for any corporation that uses the reduction to give stock in the company to ALL employees. This one action—along with effective employee engagement—would get every employee to think like an owner, which would produce more competitive corporations…Substantially change thinking about national security from being prepared for traditional military conflict with potential adversaries (China, Russia etc.) to thinking about concerns coming from climate change, pandemics, and cyber threats…Encourage citizens (through various means) to engage in more face-to-face communication, since we are all obsessed with our phones. Electronic communication is very efficient but it is not optimal human communication.”
Jim Mattis, former secretary of defense: “I had come to see the corrosive political rhetoric, the destruction of Americans’ fundamental friendliness for one another, and the efforts to do whatever was necessary to make our political opponents out to be ‘evil’…as destroying our ability to govern. It was like a slow-motion car-wreck that we can still stop if we have the political will and leadership. No government of the people, by the people, for the people, especially one with a Constitutional composition of four competing power-bases, can function or govern effectively if it remains permanently in electioneering/divisive mode, with gladiatorial combat the norm, as we try to politically kill one another.”
Write to Gerald F. Seib at jerry.seib@wsj.com
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