So Here’s the Thing…: Notes on Growing Up, Getting Older, and Trusting Your Gut(5)

Maybe by the time you read this we’ll have a better sense of who the Democrats will run. Regardless, I don’t look forward to watching the overcrowded primary debates. As voters, we have a responsibility to start looking at who really wants it—not who wants it because they want to be the president, because they want to see themselves in that office (and with that Twitter handle) but because they want to serve. The election in 2016 showed us that polls are not a reliable foundation on which to build a campaign. The people are. The best politicians, the ones I get excited about, know that.

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When I left the White House, I wanted to be done with it all. I was tired. I’m conflict-averse, and I felt I’d done my time. I don’t like the sparring and politicking and behind-the-scenes jousting. I hated the theater of the dueling press releases, and I hate the spectacle of Twitter even more.

And never did I imagine that two and a half years after leaving my office in the West Wing—a building I didn’t just respect but loved with my whole heart—I would be outside those gates protesting a new president who gloated about grabbing pussies. On the one hand, it would be easy for me to tap out and avoid involvement.

On the other, I couldn’t do that in good conscience.

It’s not like I think my participation in politics is necessary or meaningful. Nobody’s is. But I worked too hard, and saw too much, to sit idly by as a bigot reigns over the Oval Office. The only way to make an impact is as a collective, which we can’t form if everyone is bickering over strategy and focus. It can be difficult to figure out what to do, how to get involved, when there are so many problems and they all seem impossible to fix and you’re just one person sitting at your computer reading the news. But like it or not, you probably already know what you can do to get involved. It starts with being really, truly engaged with what’s happening and how different politicians are proposing to respond to it. The best way to help get us out of this mess is by voting and by vocally supporting candidates who seem authentically dedicated to fighting for policies you want—not just for their own glory. After that, doing work for organizations that focus on causes you care about, donating money to those groups and to campaigns, and volunteering to knock on doors or phone-bank for campaigns are all not at all pointless ways to fight for change. The main point is that you can’t tweet the resistance. You have to join it.





Susan Rice on How Diplomacy Has Changed (and How Young Women Can Help Shape It)




Though most people will know the formidable Susan Rice as the former national security advisor for Barack Obama, ambassador to the UN, and staff member of the National Security Council and assistant secretary of state for African Affairs under Bill Clinton, I know her as all those things and as an awesome dancer. One of my favorite memories of working with Susan was from the “Last Chance Dance Vajamboree,” a going-away party Kathy Ruemmler and I held when we left the White House. Susan’s moves were so inspired that when Mindy Kaling walked into the room, she said, “Oh my God—is that the national security advisor dropping it like it’s hot?!”

It was. Though I don’t expect Susan to reveal the secrets to her success on the dance floor in my book, she was gracious enough to share some insight into her career and into politics right now.

You served in the Clinton administration, before Al Gore invented the internet, and then in the Obama administration, when we all had to learn what Twitter was. How do you think social media has changed the way we govern—for better or worse?

There have been two major changes in the media since I began as a twenty-eight-year-old staffer in President Clinton’s NSC in early 1993. First, we have gone from the three original TV networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) plus CNN to tons of twenty-four-hour cable options, and from major, big-city print newspapers to all kinds of online news offerings. Second, we have seen the advent of social media.

Together, these trends have vastly changed the landscape for governing and policy-making. The pace of information flow is infinitely faster, so people in power have to respond to events instantaneously and often without ample time for thoughtful consideration of various courses of action. In addition, with social media, consumers can pick and choose their own sources of information—and even what they wish to be their own “facts.” We no longer have a baseline (like Walter Cronkite) telling us what is happening. Without common information and a real, agreed factual basis for decision-making, Americans are talking past one another, and the quality and utility of public debate is greatly diminished. Civil discourse is under attack, starting from the Oval Office, and the fabric of our society is fraying. I believe these developments pose a potential long-term risk to the viability of our democracy.

On the positive side, social media has made information more readily accessible, galvanized collaborative efforts among users (for better and worse), and given informed consumers wider access to knowledge.

Bottom line: It was a lot easier to govern in the old days than it is today.

President Trump is constantly committing unbelievable diplomatic errors. Do you think it will be possible to restore the United States’ diplomatic relationships once he leaves office? How will whoever is in office have to approach that task?

Every day President Trump is in office, he does more damage to America’s ability to remain a global leader, much less a moral leader. The damage is almost incalculable. If he wins a second term, I think all bets are off.