Introducing "Governing Right"
The policies, people, and processes of public leadership
This is a newsletter about governing—public leadership from inside the system.
There are thousands and thousands of newsletters, podcasts, columns, videos, speeches, and cable-news and radio shows about politics. About campaigns. About courts. About social commentary. About policy analysis. All of those things are important. But they are not governing.
Today, too little thought and discussion is dedicated to the work of actually using legislative and executive authority to do important things. We need people with character, experience, smarts, and judgment to govern. We need those people to understand how institutions operate, how statutes and regulations are written, how coalitions are built, how guidance letters are issued, how administrative decisions are made, how general counsels and attorneys-general get involved. We need to pay attention to these things if we want them done well.
Unfortunately, so much of today’s commentary about public life is offered up by those who are primarily interested in things other than governing. They would prefer to focus on how wrong their opponents are. Or how terrible some trend is. Or how important this next election is. Or what this judge might do or what a new study has said. And most of the folks offering up such commentary have never governed themselves. In total, this has been bad for the public square and bad for the practice of public leadership.
What we read and hear about public life is often about radioactive subjects, not important subjects. It is presented in ways that are attention-grabbing and entertaining but not necessarily thorough or fair. It has a way of spotlighting show horses, not work horses. It seldom accurately represents or informs the day-to-day work of people entrusted with public authority. As a result, too much of the conversation is like the reflection of a funhouse mirror: It warps the real world, exaggerating certain parts and shrinking others.
This newsletter will be different. It will be informed by the eight government positions I’ve held (state, federal, legislative, executive). It will often discuss key issues that get too little attention. It will generally be moderate in tone. It will discuss policy, but it will also discuss the human aspects of public leadership—the habits, skills, dispositions, and practices of successful governing. And it will focus on what governing officials can and should do and how.
Lastly, this newsletter comes from a right-of-center perspective. I believe in federalism, localism, variety, republicanism, subsidiarity, civil society, community, originalism, markets, ordered liberty, spontaneous order, practical wisdom, and prudence. I’m skeptical of statism, centralization, and technocracy.
America’s form of self-government is a wonder. We need to preserve and strengthen it. I think that requires taking seriously the work of governing. I hope you subscribe and read.
