Renewing Public Service: Finding the Left Leaders of the Future

For progressive government, we'll need progressive talent.

The election of a new president always triggers a scramble for appointments, especially when it involves the change of power from one party to another. It’s like Black Friday for policy nerds. The image that comes to mind is of a Wal-Mart for DC insiders, all of whom are now lined up against the locked door, their breath fogging the glass as they scramble for position.

Progressives are expressing concern about many top-level Biden appointments. That’s understandable. But the left also needs to pivot from negation to affirmation whenever it can. Human personalities can’t thrive in a world where everything they hear is negative. They — we — need a positive vision of what the world might become.’’

We also need to do something else important. We must restore the respect that was once associated with working in the government — or, as it was once known, “public service.”

The Reagan Era gave rise to the destructive myth that government is an alien, occupying force. Bill Clinton reinforced that idea with comments like, “the era of big government is over.” George W. Bush and Donald Trump force-fed the electorate the cruel lie that government positions were staffed, not by high-minded public servants, by malicious incompetents — and then offered the power of their own examples.

If we want a more progressive and engaged government, we will need to identify and promote people who are dedicated to public service — people who welcome the chance to serve, and who have the perspective needed to deliver on this nation’s progressive promise.

When it comes to staffing an administration, that means proposing names that may be politically impractical right now but might become practical in the future. Naomi Klein for EPA head? Ai-Jen Poo for Labor Secretary? We need to fire our imaginations — not just with names, but with the vision of what the right people could do in these positions.

Ir will take years of work to build a bank of progressive professionals for future administrations — while laying the political groundwork for future administrations that recognize the urgency of the moment and the need for profound change. But we can start laying out the vision right now.