On several occasions as a young child I recall seeing something I wanted and said to myself that if I still wanted it in six months then I really needed it. I think I did this because I was precocious. (Some things haven’t changed.) Of course at the time I was too young to be able to distinguish between really want and actually need.
As I have watched the elections in the U.S. I have seen politicians and press alike pander to the desires of their respective audiences, giving them what they want and not necessarily what they need, and I have wondered where they draw the line between responding to their audience and leading their people. For some there is no line, because they are not leaders at all, and I’m wondering how we might turn that around.
Today Jen Psaki, the White House Press Secretary was called on to defend Joe Biden and his family who were not wearing masks on federal land, only hours after Biden himself signed a requirement that masks be worn on federal land. The press were holding the president accountable, requiring him to show consistency between word and deed, as they should. It was a role they played under the previous president, and those before. Jen Psaki gave a professional and measured response, as you’d expect.
I’ve been in Jen Psaki’s position but don’t have her competence. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve found myself replaying interactions after performing poorly, imagining how I might have responded differently. Many of those rehearsals were conducted during brisk walks through the high street, in a time before I could blame wireless headphones for talking to myself while passersby gave me wary looks. In my rehearsals I’d be witty, and pithy. My performance would bear no relation to fumblingly wordy response I actually cobbled together whilst feeling completely off balance.
I’m replaying Jen Psaki’s response now. I’m wondering how to respond while putting across the point that we confuse giving people what they want with giving people what they need, just as we can often confuse what is urgent with what is important. My first pass at a possible response goes something like this:
“You’re right to call these things out. We need to hold one another accountable – doing so makes us all better. There will be times the president slips, but I can’t say this is one of them. We need to look at the context, the safety precautions that are in place to protect everyone in question, and the uniqueness of the moment. On my first day I said there would be times we disagree, and perhaps this is one of them.
I hope you will forgive me for holding you to account when I say there are things our people want to hear, and there are things our people need to hear. We are approaching half a million dead from the coronavirus in this country, and hundreds of thousands more are suffering emotionally, spiritually, and financially. The country is divided and we need to put an enormous amount of effort in bringing everyone together. All the while this is happening, the world is slowly getting hotter, sea levels are rising, and the threats from hurricanes, tornadoes and floods are rising. Our people may want to question why the president was not wearing a mask with his family on the day he was elected president, but I think we need to help our people focus on the pressing matters of the moment.
There will be times in future when I share news on something you think is not important, and it may not be important. I expect you to call me out on that. But right now I’d like like to focus on not only what is important, but what is also urgent, and I hope you’ll work with me today, and in the coming weeks and months, to help us all to remain focused on that, and to hold us accountable when we don’t.”
Maybe I should have just responded to the question. Maybe encouraging people to stay focused on the important matters of the time should be done in a different way. Maybe I’m trying to do too many things at once here – I’m often guilty of that as well. Naturally I share all this as I picture myself walking alone down the high street while passersby give me disturbed looks. Some habits are really hard to break.
