Do any of them have a soul?
Lincoln Project takes on Stefanik
The Front Page
Morning Update
Saturday, January 15, 2022
By Ken Tingley
After almost an hour talking to Patrick Barber, I finally got to the question at the heart of the issue.
These people in national politics, these people so desperate to obtain and maintain power in government, the people who show no shame daily with the hypocrisy of their actions, you have wonder about their motivation.
Is it all about the title, about being a big shot.
Can it really be all about the money and things they can buy?
Certainly, it is not for the admiration or being recognized for having their face on television or having a million followers on social media.
What makes them do the things they do?
I looked back at Patrick through our Zoom connection.
“Do they have souls?” I asked.
He hesitated, as if considering the larger question of morality, maybe even heaven and hell.
“Power is a funny thing,” Patrick began. “We see it in our daily interactions, the companies we work for, certain dynamics in the workplace. In our own way, we like the attention that power gets us. Maybe it is so addictive when you have power at that scale. Maybe we mortals can’t relate to it.”
Patrick Barber grew up in the town of Fort Ann. His father once served on the town council. His mother describes him as a moral and ethical person. While at Tufts, he started a student ethics group, then went to graduate school at Yale. He has chosen a variety of careers that has improved the world around him and he always thought he might someday run for elected office.
When Elise Stefanik decided to run for Congress in 2013, he was “Intrigued and encouraged that someone so young would step into something like that.”
It encouraged him that someone like himself could do it, too.
And after the 2016 election, Patrick began thinking seriously about challenging Stefanik in 2018.
“If there was any chance to win, it would be in 2018,” he said.
So he did his due diligence.
While working in Saranac Lake he began speaking to people in the North Country. He talked with former congressman Bill Owens, and former Democratic candidate Mike Derrick. He talked to a Washington D.C, professor who had ties to the North Country and observed local politics closely. He reviewed voting patterns all across the district to see how Owens had won in a district that was 2 to 1 Republican.
He identified four areas where he would have to excel.
- He would have to be good at raising money.
- He would have to find staff and talent to wage a local campaign.
- He would have to navigate the modern media environment to gain an authentic voice that would allow him to craft a message that would resonate.
- And he would have to sell himself to the national political party and convince them he was the real deal.
“I believed that we needed someone reasonable to step up and so something,” Patrick said. “Someone who grew up in the area and had deep roots here.”
But he never pulled the trigger.
He worried about getting asking for money and not winning, especially from people who had worked so hard for that money.
He was concerned about the effect a public campaign might have on his challenge.
“In this new online environment, I worried about what would be unleashed. I just didn’t want my parents to see the bad things people would say about me,” Patrick said. “And it was not as bad then as it is now. It is even more vile and pointed today. To do it now without being extremely provocative and in many case flat out lying, I’m not sure if it can be done.”
Patrick and I were two guys just talking about the world around us the other night. He was level-headed, smart, a regular guy who wanted to give something back to the community. In other words, he is the type of guy who could never get elected anymore.
“When we don’t have concerted good faith about topics, how does a person who wants to be reasonable and has a good perspective, a good sense about some solutions, how does this person get the attention when everyone else is trying to appeal to those base primal fears,” Patrick said.
That brought us back to Elise Stefanik.
“I don’t even know what to think about her anymore,” he said. “When she first ran in 2014, even though I did not agree with her on most of the issues, and I didn’t appreciate the way she used Willsboro, it was an impressive feat (that she won). She is a talented politician. But she is not a very talented public servant. She knew how to navigate those four areas because of her time in Washington. It wasn’t as personal to her because she doesn’t have the close personal ties in the district. She isn’t as affected by it. She is probably not thinking about the district as much as a typical member of Congress. She has acquired a lot of political power pretty quickly. I just can’t believe she used that horrible day on January 6 to increase her political party.”
So we we’re back to the question of morality.
Of whether these professional politicians have a soul, and maybe more importantly whether anyone with ideas, solutions and connections to the community can ever be elected anymore?
That’s something we all should be asking these days because it is so to be “We the people.”
Patrick admits he doesn’t see a way out of the current political climate.
“A lot of people don’t have agency in the world,” Patrick said. He was choosing his words carefully now. He meant very few were willing to take action, to be part of an intervention of the status quo.
“The economic future is not in our control, our health care is out of our control, politics is out of our control,” Patrick explained. “Weirdly enough, if enough people don’t act, the void is filled by others that are doing things. If we do have agency, we can change things. Things won’t change unless we do something.”
Suddenly, Patrick stops as if he is thinking about it for the first time in a long time.
“I haven’t done a a whole lot to make things change, to continue the conversation,” Patrick said. “But I want to get there. The only way to right the ship, to hand off democracy to my future kids is to have more agency. I need to do a better job of talking about this because it gets me energized.”
We had talked for an hour.
We had not solved any of the world’s problems, but out minds were turning.
What I kept thinking about was that Patrick Barber was the one that got away. He is exactly the type of person we need in Washington.
But he decided it probably wasn’t worth it.
And who can blame him.
Lincoln Project tweet
The Lincoln Project, a group of like-minded Republicans, have taken on Rep. Elise Stefanik in a recent national ad that questions how she has changed her thinking since first coming into Congress. It is worth a look.
Another book reading
I will be speaking on Wednesday, January 26 at the Hudson Falls Library at 7 p.m. I’ll be talking about life, newspapers and my first book “The Last American Editor.”
Mark your calendar. I hope to see you all there.
The Minority will continue to rule the majority for decades. We had a small window to change the trajectory and a few Senators from small states held us hostage. The Senate is undemocratic, the Supreme Court is in the hands of conservatives put in by Presidents who didn't win the popular/majority and the efforts by these power hungry people will continue to suppress our rights, control the narrative and destroy our lives.
I think back to John Sweeney who was also a rising star after his participation in the Brooks brothers riot in Florida. I think he was at least close to the level of “stardom” that Elise Stefanik has reached. Not to say I think she’s going to fall as precipitously as he did because who knows.
On the soul thing, I can only speak for myself, but a lot of what I did in my late teens and 20’s I still feel a lot of guilt over. By the time I reached 37 I like to think I’d developed some moral center even if I don’t always do as Jesus would. I often wonder if there’s going to come a point in our congresswoman’s life where she will look back with guilt over her actions. Not sure which way I’m rooting.
I suspect that Sweeney is a happier person now that he’s no longer in Congress. I hope so and wish the best for him. John Katko has decided he’d be happier “spending more time with his family.” Snark aside, I’m sorry to see someone go who’s standing for what makes the country great and not for a cult leader.