The GOP has a record 17 candidates running for president. Many Americans are looking forward to this first presidential debate on Thursday night to see who comes out on top. But win or lose, I believe Abraham Lincoln had an idea that could rally the country around a single candidate who announced it and could clinch the nomination by doing so.
As a six-time undefeated world karate champion, I – as well as any long-term title holder – will tell you that we obtained our rank not by simply approaching every competition the same way. We achieved it – among other things – by repeatedly mastering our opponents' strategies and by leveraging their weaknesses and strengths against our own.
In a column a few years ago, I introduced a martial arts practice that does just that. The art of Jiu-Jitsu uses an opponent's weight and strength to your own advantage. I believe this is what the GOP candidates must do in the coming 2016 presidential election.
So herein lies my political Jiu-Jitsu idea. After a fair fight for the GOP nomination, why can't the GOP contenders join together with an unparalleled strategy that could send any Democrat competitor into tailspins? Why can't the winner create a united front and say, "A vote for one of us is a vote for all of us"? Why can't they create a presidential cabinet that would utilize all their skill sets to resurrect our republic? Why should the next GOP president try to sell the American public on new, obscure Cabinet members when these candidates have been vetted before our eyes for months? I can't think of any preceding presidential race where an idea like this is more needed than now to ensure a GOP win.
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One of the frustrations that many share about the present field of GOP candidates is that most of them bring a significant strength needed for the presidency but alone aren't the total presidential package.
So, why not pool those strengths by pledging to try and coalesce them in a 2016 presidential Cabinet? Who cannot see how their collective leadership gifts could bring better synergy among every branch of government, rally our divided nation, and lead our country to a new prosperous era?
It's not my original idea, but Abraham Lincoln's. The idea is captured in a book called 'Team of Rivals." It tells how Lincoln appointed his opponents on his presidential cabinet, because he needed all of them to unify and restore the country.
The complete title of the book is: "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian. The book itself is political genius, and I believe outlines the crucial strategy not only needed to rally the present GOP base but also win the White House and save our republic.
Let me highlight a few critical points from Goodwin's book review in the New York Times:
As these internal Republican feuds suggest, the party in the 1860s was a coalition of politicians who only a few years earlier had been Whigs (Lincoln, Seward, Bates), Democrats (Blair, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Vice President Hannibal Hamlin), Free Soilers (Chase), or had flirted with the short-lived anti-immigrant American Party, or Know Nothings (Cameron and Bates). In addition, several cabinet members personally disliked each other: Blair and Chase, Seward and Welles, Chase and Seward, Blair and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who replaced Cameron in January 1862. Lincoln's "political genius" enabled him to herd these political cats and keep them driving toward ultimate victory.
How did he do it? Goodwin deals with this question better than any other writer. Part of the answer lay in Lincoln's steadfastness of purpose, which inspired subordinates to overcome their petty rivalries. Part of it lay in his superb sense of timing and his sensitivity to the pulse of public opinion as he moved to bring along a divided people to the support of "a new birth of freedom." And part of it lay in Lincoln's ability to rise above personal slights, his talent for getting along with men of clashing ideologies and personalities who could not get along with each other.
No idea is without its limitations or faults. For example, one difference in Lincoln's strategic move from my proposal is that he appointed these rivals after he became president. I realize that a candidate or nominee cannot appoint cabinet members before taking office, but he could pledge to extend an invitation to other candidates and challenge them to be willing to serve their country whether they won the nomination or not.
If I were one of the GOP candidates, I would pause a debate where all of them are present and say, "I have a pledge to make to the country and a challenge to make to the other presidential candidates. If our political party appoints me as its nominee, I will pledge to extend an invitation to all these other presidential candidates to be a part of my administration. And if they joined me and I win, I promise to extend an invitation to appoint each of them to a post that will utilize their greatest strength and simultaneously create a dream team that will make this country great again. In fact, as an act of leadership humility and love for our country, I would commit even now to do the same for anyone else who was elected president."
The big question today is: Is there a Lincoln on the present political GOP landscape who can discern these unique times, is willing to go against the flow, strategize outside the box and demonstrate servant leadership through a "Team of Rivals" course of action?
Today's GOP presidential competitors are truly a unique blend of gifted and talented people. You may not want to see all of them in the Oval Office, but wouldn't you want to see most help the next president and country in some position? Wouldn't you like to hear them pledge – win or lose – that they will serve in our country's next administration if asked?
Pledging to be on this GOP political dream team would also be a true test of all the contenders' patriotism and servant leadership. Do they love and want to save our country enough to take a second, third, fourth, fifth, etc., seat among the presidential administration? Then prove it!
Lincoln also said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
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