There’s been a good amount of debate in Democratic circles since November’s election about how the party should move forward after losing the presidency, the U.S. Senate and here in Arizona seeing the GOP increase its majorities in the Legislature.
Phil Boaz, an editorial columnist for the Arizona Republic and a Republican, has an idea. He thinks Democrats should rally behind someone like ASU President Michael Crow.
Boaz points out that Crow has not expressed an interest in running, and is merely the kind of person who would make a good candidate. He joined The Show to talk more about this.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Phil, let’s stipulate that you’re not trying to say that Michael Crow should leave ASU and run for office, but you are using him as an example for what kind of candidate Democrats should look at going forward.
And I’d like to start with why you think he’s the kind of person for this.
PHIL BOAS: You know, it’s interesting. Just over the weekend, the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, who has been a man of the left for many years, he made the comment about the LA fires that it is so crazy that we have leaders that are reactive rather than proactive, that we don’t elect people with great operational competence.
I was thinking the same thing about the Democratic Party after the presidential election and Democrats were sort of scratching around for answers, “What do we do in the future?” And we got it into a discussion on the Republic editorial board about this. And I mentioned, if I were looking for the next leader in the Democratic Party — somebody who I would run for president — it would be somebody in the model of Michael Crow, because Michael Crow is exactly that.
He is a person who doesn’t speak so much in political terms. He’s not political at all, I don’t think, because I can’t read his politics. But he speaks with deeds. He gets things done. He has absolute operational competence. And he’s proven it over 22 years at Arizona State University.
BRODIE: So it’s sort of a “show don’t tell” kind of mentality?
BOAS: Right. That’s who he is. And so he goes out and gets things done. It was interesting, I had a conversation with Rob Melnick, who has worked for many years as sort of a right-hand man to Crow. And I went to him because I wanted sort of a reality check. Am I perceiving him in the right way?
And he told me something I didn’t get to work into my column, but I thought it was great. Crow had grown up in a military family, and he has this sense about him, this one aspect of military life about him, that he is mission focused. Everything is about accomplishing the mission. We’re doing these things to actually achieve something. And that’s why you’ve seen so much incredible achievement at ASU over his 22 years.
BRODIE: Do you get the sense that that is what voters are looking for? Somebody who can say, “I have done X, Y and Z, and if elected I will do X, Y and Z,” as opposed to somebody who says, “You know, here’s what I believe” and sort of throwing red meat to the base.
BOAS: I think there’s a lot of exhaustion in both parties with all of the chaos that we have seen over the last couple of years, created by both parties, created by the national populism that Donald Trump brought, and also created by the identity politics that the Democratic Party gave us.
And I think they just want to see people who can fix the potholes, who can start addressing the problems in this country and make life better for people, instead of going after highfalutin, crazy ideas that have just taken us down some bad roads and made us hate each other.
It’s time to start improving the country, making it better. And I think within the Democratic Party, they need a leader like that, who is not so drawn into the ideology and garbage on the progressive left. You know, who can, who can make things happen, can move the ball.
BRODIE: Well, so let me ask you a practical question — and I apologize for asking a cynical question, but it is politics after all — do you think somebody like that could win a primary, either on the Democratic or Republican side?
BOAS: I don’t know, but I know I’ve seen a lot of things in politics I’ve never seen before over the last five or 10 years. I just know that out there, when you talk to people, there is a craving for somebody who will get things done. And I think Patrick Soon-Shiong of the LA Times was expressing this, was one more person expressing this.
And it’s out there, and there’s a powerful feeling. And it’s not just on the left, it’s on the right as well. But you’re right, it’s tough to win primaries now because they’re so focused on the base, more so than ever before. And the base is wildly on the margins in both parties. It’s a mess in both parties.
BRODIE: Assuming that Michael Crow is not going to give up his day job at ASU and run for office, are there people who are currently in politics that you think fit this mold? Or do you think that — I mean, you’re writing specifically about Democrats, so let’s stick with them — do you think that they should be looking outside of politics to academics, to the business world, to the philanthropic world, to someone other than a politician to maybe be the standard bearer going forward?
BOAS: Yeah,that’s sort of exactly the point. And that is we may not find this within the political world. They’re slaves to the base and have been catering to the base. Within the Democratic Party, I see somebody like Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania. I think that he has a lot of these qualities.
He’s kind of a centrist in his state, very popular even with the Republicans, has worked across the aisle with the Republicans. I see him as somebody sort of in that vein, who knows how to problem solve. And I think that’s really the model that I think Americans are going to be looking to as we eventually leave this era in American politics that has just been such a mess.
BRODIE: So what is your level of optimism that either party will go in this direction to find sort of the competent manager to run either for president or for for other offices, as opposed to the loudest voice in the room, the person who can really appeal to the base, the person who sort of checks particular party boxes?
BOAS: You know, I think I think it’s fatigue. I think people are tired. Americans are tired of the kind of politics we’ve been practicing over the last 10 years. It’s just too smashmouth. It’s turning into a cliche. It’s getting old.
Even Trump, you can kind of sense — Trump is always talking crazy and things, but he’s actually like sending some messages that are more moderate. Now that could change tomorrow. That could change this afternoon. With Trump, anything is possible, and things can take a turn south very quickly.
But I think there’s a strong feeling or desire for that within the country now. I think just people are sick of it.