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From Passion to Politics: What Moves People to Take Action?

The 2007 Princeton Colloquium on Public and International Affairs

Taking Office to Take Action

By Donna Liu
Apr21, 2007
Moderator: James Leach '64, former Congressman from Iowa, John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs and Co. Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University Panelists: William H. Frist, M.D. '74 P06 P10, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader (R-Tenn.) Eliot Spitzer '81, Governor of New York
Welcoming Remarks: Shirley Tighlman, President, Princeton University
The Woodrow Wilson School is seeking to understand the motivations of agents of action and change, but understand how to motivate all of us to make change and move people to address the problems that confront society. 
Each of the panelists took office to take action and hope that Princeton helped put them on that path. 

Introduction of panelists: James Leach
We are seeing in the last month academic reviews of the gilded age with analogies to today. Many people have started to speak to this issue, there's only one that stands out as standing up against gilded age values and that's the former attorney general of New York. 

William Frist:
Two concepts
1: The Citizen Legislator - Having a profession completely different from being a legislator and then leaving to return to citizen life.
2: Introduce medicine and health quality of life into public diplomacy, where we as a society can use medicine as a currency for peace around the world. 
 My background - Came to Princeton without knowing anyone or with any family. Four years at the Woodrow Wilson School and did the pre-med program. Long interest in marrying medicine and policy. Went onto to Harvard Medical School. Pioneer in the field of lung and heart transplant despite opposition based on policy. In 1993, with no political background or politicians in the family, ran for US Senate. How to go from healing 1 on 1 to healing in the community. Decided, because of global interest the best place was to go was the US Senate. Made a campaign promise to only serve two terms to return back to medical practice and be a citizen legislator. 
Using medicine as a currency of peace - Going to Africa and listening to what people need in Darfur and Rwanda, and going back to DC to get resources.  

Governor Eliot Spitzer: 
The notion of citizen legislator is the right one. I'll explain how I ended up where I am today. When I saw the title of the forum, it struck me as appropriate and odd. My campaign slogan was "Bringing Passion to Albany." How do you bring back some emotional energy to a government that has been lacking for some time?
There's some who get into politics because its a profession, and there's some who go in because its a cause. If you beleive you have a cause you move beyond self preservation and try to reach goals of your cause. Would like to see on either side of the isle, and frame a debate based on values and disagreements and vote on those issues. If you want to get in because you want to accomplish something, then that's the best thing in the world. 
The law was the vehicle that I knew how to use to move policy. Largest accomplishment in the last 50-60 years in the US was the creation of the middle class, and a common set of value that drew us towards that. I see today that we are becoming a more stratified society and moving in the wrong direction. Consequences are these gilded age values and distorted behaviors in different policy arenas. As attorney general, I tried to address it. My efforts weren't a populist crusade, but ensuring that we all played by the rules to get the greatest wealth creation for everyone.  Low wages, particulalry for immigrants, and business practices were violating the laws and standards of decency and fairness. 
Now trying to do the same thing as governor. In terms of bring passion to politics because we need that sense of values. Being drawn to this by a desire to do something that is life changing to those who you would like to affect. Two terms as an executive is all one can reasonably serve without losing sense of policy and desire. 

Audience Questions:
Question: The balance between achieving passion in politics but move beyond bickering? 
Gov. Spitzer: My current role requires far more coalition building than my previous position. Now as governor, I have an obligation to work with legislators whom I do not always agree. Able to do that with the budget process. I have to get comfortable with those compromises, but still work to get things done. 
Frist: Objectivity that is important in making a diagnosis. Must be unbiased, can be partisan, but you have to make a diagnosis and then be held accoutnable. As majority leader, I had to lead 55 republicans and make partnerships. Now there is a lack of civility in DC, it wasn't always that way. Need to move away from that, and it will take executive leadership to break through that. 
Gov Spitzer: Metaphor of a medical diagnosis is so right. Often passion obscure fact, and at the foundation of any medical diagnosis is a set agreed upon set of facts. What we often miss in political discourse is an agreed upon set of facts and then argue from those positions.  I used the skills from the Woodrow Wilson School to explore and present facts and then argue values. 

Question: In India, most government money meant for the poor, does not reach the poor. In India you take office to make profit. The reason there is distaste for politicians is because the politicians are not there to serve the people. How can we improve that? Lastly, who will regulate the regulators?
Frist: What I found coming to the senate at first, was a real committment to service. My net worth fell remarkably while I was serving, but I wasn't concerned about that. I find it hard to beleive that anyone would go to the US Sentate for financial gain because they can make more without being in the Senate or public service. Concerned that many people won't enter politics because of the bad reputation, and other professional and personal challenges that come with being a Senator. 
Spitzer: The vast majority of people who serve are there for the right reason. Most are there becasue they think they can do something good, maybe not as driven as they should be.

Question: Regarding the lack of civility in politics, it has to be a bruising experience personally and for your families. What advice do you have for people who are interested in public office but are weary of that personal sacrifice? 
Spitzer: You develop a thicker skin. At the end of the day, as long as I beleive what I'm doing is right, I didn't care. That's the nature of the battle.
Frist: To be successful in politics and keep that passion there. More of putting everything in a much larger perspective. With politics you have to examine your framework because it become public to the world. With the Internet and everything, we have to think about that. In politics you're constantly challenged and accusations are made. 

Question: In the news, an enormous amount of the coarsening of the public discourse, derives from the US House of Representatives. To what degree do you think that the computer driven gerrymandering of congressional districts has contributed to the coarsening of the debate in congress.
Leach: I know of no subject in politics that is less energizing or passionate than the subject of redistricting. 480 house seats are totally safe in the House. One of the implications is that a small minority of the public, that are ideaologically stratified, control the democrats and republicans in the primaries. In congress you have no incentive to move to the center. The aspect of no competitiveness misserves the body politics. Secondly, you end up with a house that is philosophically more to the edges. This is more in the House, than the Senate, but is becoming more true in the Senate. The only you get through it is to reform the redistricting process and raise the importance of primaries among the public. 
Spitzer: Wish the American electorate understood Jim's analysis of the problem. In terms of redistricting, as governor I do have to sign off on the districts that will be drawn after the next census, and I won't sign off on districts that are driven by protecting incumbents. 

Question: How do you balance to role as elected leaders to serve your constituents and humanity on the world stage?
Frist: Prior to the Senate, my international interests were limited to what I learned at Princeton. As a Senator I traveled to 40 countries. People here probably resent that. We need to encourage elected officials to get involved in international aspects because things that happens in other parts of the world connects with us.
Spitzer: New York does have a foreign policy because of the greater influx of immigrant communites. There is also a very real impact the world economy has on New York. New York has been brought into the debate of globalization of trade in a very real way. 

Question: How do you balance your planning and passion?
Frist: Candidates and politicians are constantly given information from pollsters, that is dangerous. If you get into this business, you have to be willing to lose. A lot of politicians don't have that option and just follow the campaign strategy. Need to understand passion and have a long-term strategic plan then begin a campaign strategy. 
Spitzer: You can be driven to get into this because you have a firm set of values and convictionsa about what you want to do, then you can sound like the technocrat. You have to project that passionate element to create and argument and a foundation for a shift in direction. To implement it you need that technical skill. 

Question: You need money or have to come from money to get into politics. Do you think that's a problem?
Frist: At the Senate level, in extreme cases the self funders don't win, or win the first time. There was/is a problem of getting your voice out with the networks. Today, that's not as important, because of internet and how fast information travels. The challenge of money is there. You can't just be somebody with good ideas and expect to get elected to the US Senate. 
Spitzer: Gerrymandering and campaign financing are the two cancers in elections. I hope that technology will help with the campaign financing as we move more towards an internet based media. 
Leach: Financing absolutely constrains the number of people who can run. For many Americans, its difficult to ask people to give me money. Today candidates have to spend an hour a day on the telephone asking people for money. What kind of person is that? 

Question: There's a movement to override the electoral college. Are you inclined to go with that movement. 
Spitzer: It would be great to get rid of the electoral college. I don't think we're going to get there soon because, we need to ask states to vote against state interests. There is some argument that you can go state by state, but that is difficult to do with rule of game theory. 
Leach: Instead of trying to change the electoral college, if enough states have laws to bind the state to vote with the population, and not have that come into effect until a majority of states have done so. You can change the electoral college outside of the traditional legislative action. Changing the electoral college and getting rid of it are two different judgment values. 


Question: How has economic inequality and stratification impact the government?
Frist: There's a limitation to how much government will do because of the political realities. Therefore, we need to use public-private partnerships and use technology. Secondly, we need to look at things differently. With public diplomacy, we're in touble in the US. 
Spitzer: This is one of the most vexing problems. The most challenging question confronting us, is even if we do everything right in domestic politics, will the global economy still impact us to move towards a dumb-bell society? 




Apr21, 2007
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