Now what?
After all the campaign events, campaign promises, flyers and ads, now what? Campaigning is one aspect; governing is the impactful part.
Campaigning is not governing, yet governing is challenging to describe and put into campaigning. These two aspects have different goals and ways of speaking. It is much more of a sport to campaign. Governing is patience, detailed and collaborative.
Mario Cuomo once said, “You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose.”
The poetry is appealing to the values, wishes and dreams of the voters. Poetry grabs the attention of the people and inspires them to continue to be excited by and engaged in the campaign. The poetry can be infectious and builds camaraderie among strangers to build community across regions to benefit the candidates. Poetry attracts neighbors who do not think they have much in common, to work toward a common goal and a belief that there can be a renewed faith in people who want to govern us.
The prose part is always tricky after spending so much time in poetry.
In prose, the now elected official must take those campaign concepts and figure out how to implement the ideas as part of the complex web that is the executive branch and the structural rigidness of separation of powers and checks and balances that is the legislative and judicial branches.
The mundane and day-to-day management of governing take commitment without an encouraging audience; policy implementation without a cheering crowd; making difficult decisions without constant applause.
The prose also involves working for and talking with communities that may not have voted for the official. Sure, on the campaign trail and during the victory speech, candidates will claim to work for everyone, including those who did not vote for them — more than the base of supporters. Yet how does this translate to governing? This translates by considering the interests and needs of those communities who are beyond the base.
Prose is being strategic, thoughtful, collaborative, and dare I suggest, compromising the steps to achieve the goal. Prose takes time to cultivate relationships especially when managing challenging matters. Prose also means convincing others to agree to the poetry, even with those who disagreed with the candidate during the primary or general election.
As wonderful as these flowery words are on paper, as a practice, these words in action take immense effort, skill and time.
The intense poetry phase of campaigning can create impatience with the electorate, expecting large and quick results to meet the promises fed to them over months. Many of the promises made on campaigns are in-depth and complicated — aspirations that go beyond what one person can accomplish. Our system of government is based on the interdependencies of various departments, agencies and levels of government.
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These interdependencies create friction when the poetry of the campaign runs against the prose of governing.
Governing has gotten more challenging with the increased access of traditional media and new media. The media environment amplifies the original distance in the poetry phase and, at times, ensure the wedge remains during prose. And here is where leadership should rise to the occasion to keep focus on important matters and reduce distractions.
How do we strike the balance between maintaining poetry for those who voted for officials, expand poetry for those who did not vote for the official, and move in prose to work through accomplishing the goals?
For one, we can work to temper expectations. Government and governing does not move quickly, especially at the state and federal levels, as many of us would like for government to move. Again, the interconnected of departments and agencies and respect for our form of government means some things move steadily to avoid harsh disruption for our Republic.
Secondly, those who did not originally buy into the poetry need time to buy in to the ideas to reduce the potential conflict with implementing the ideas. The delicate nature of convincing two or more groups of people to agree on policy, policy pathways and desired outcomes is more intertwined that most people can imagine.
Perhaps, one of the most important components is that governing is for everyone. In poetry, those who are fans of the poetry may feel as if governing is just for them, however that is not how governing works.
In the past, we have seen government working for specific groups — especially donors or those of influence. The rest of the country complains about one-sided government. Then, when other officials are elected to office, the expectation is it is okay for the winners to govern for the winners and the losers get nothing.
This tit-for-tat mentality and actions are what is keeping voters apathetic, hostile and underwhelmed by government.
In the era of click bait and short attention spans, governing requires more from officials and the voters as a whole.
Effective governing demands thoughtfulness, less retribution and more understanding of the care for the process, that is successful and efficient prose, for the entire country.
Tammy R. Greer has a PhD in Political Science and teaches public policy.
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