Stable accessible government institutions, with leaders elected in fair elections, not bought, not profiting from privilege, serving the interests of “We The People”, is a desire and goal of all Americans, citizen and non-citizen.
Following the American Civil War political leadership stepped aside giving the captains of industry and finance political leadership. The cycle repeated with progressive leadership taking hold again in the early 20th Century again replaced by today’s captains of industry and finance. History is not linear but cyclical.
In the years before the American Civil War, our country witnessed inspirational leadership as seen in Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John Calhoun, John Adams and his son John Quincy, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Monroe, Madison, Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln and many more on all levels of leadership. Young, bold and daring, these leaders were driven by principle, love of country, not ideology.
The years following the Civil War saw leadership pass from men of greatness to men of wealth and greed focusing not on their country but themselves.
With the rise of what became known as the Robber Barons of the last half of the 19th century, men and women alike stepped forward arguing for schooling of children, care for workers injured on the job, laws saying children under 12 are to have their hours regulated in the mines and elsewhere, urban and government reform, the ones in wheelchairs are no less equal than those walking on two legs, the veteran having lost his hearing, and much more, due to the roar of the cannons, and worse, should receive special consideration. Progressive thinking flourished not based on ideology, but simply on what was seen right by the laws of common sense, by people possessing good values and character.
These advocates, labeled socialists, communists, and worse, of their day are still alive today, arguing for universal health care, fair tax laws, removal of corporate money from elections, affordable and decent housing, respect for the worker but called the same as the ones calling for children under 12 not to work in the mines. That is socialists, communists, scum and worse.
Of this cyclical dynamic, the tyrants of industry and finance do their evil thing. Americans, citizen and non-citizen, involuntarily live under the “Iron heel… of corporate domination” to use the words of President Glover Cleveland (1888).
Time to return to leadership seen in the early 19th century. Young and bold leadership is emerging from the bottom, moving to the top of the social and political world. One such leader is Daniel Lurie, Mayor of San Francisco. Called by the Washington Post as San Francisco’s quiet radical, Mayor Lurie recently cut “The ribbon of a locally owned grocery store in North Beach, a neighborhood that has been without a full-service store since the Safeway closed in 2023.”
There is no radical talk heard from this mayor just his words, “I think it is radical for an elected official to think about his or her city and just stay focused on that…in San Francisco…we didn’t keep our eye on the ball...If we do that, if we do the basics of government for the people…they’re going to do the rest.”
Since 2024, the year of Mayor Lurie’s election, those living in tents in San Francisco has fallen by 85% with the level of unsheltered people down 22% from 2024 to 2026. Mayor Lurie says his city’s CEOs are to be treated as, “A part of the city”, unlike that said by Mayor Katie Wilson of Seattle to her city’s CEOs- “Bye”.
When President Franklin Roosevelt was asked whether his New Deal policies made him a socialist, he replied, “I am a Christian and a Democrat.”
Mayor Lurie speaks of being true to our values, that is the value of taking care of each other. Taking your neighbor as he comes not as desired and render to him aid. Sounds not like socialism, communism but old fashion values put forward in the Testaments, Old and New, and the Qur’an.
Time it is to move on with new leaders knowing their ideas, labeled crazy, are tomorrow’s conservative ways of thinking giving rising to new ideas with today’s new leaders becoming tomorrow’s old guard facing tomorrow’s new leaders.