The adults, it nearly seems, have all gone from the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., leaving behind a playpen teeming with delinquents. One wise, early escapee, former-Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, came to Chartwell Booksellers on September 30 to talk about his new book, The Negotiator. The grownup tone of his discourse was such a refreshing blast of oxygen in the polluted wake of Trumpian exhaust that I simply had to share a bit of it.
Senator Mitchell has done many things in his long career, in and out of Congress. Over the course of a single hour, he managed to illuminate so much of what he has seen and done that I found myself almost dumbstruck. Who knew that a politician could still talk this way: with clarity and compassion - not cruelty and sarcasm; with a command of facts - not fear mongering; with wit and grace and, most impressively, without animus for those who disagree with him.
He did not serve up sound bites. Quick quotes can't do his remarks justice. I urge you to watch the full WEBCAST we have streaming now on our Chartwell Booksellers website.
Still, just a few tangy moments:
"I believe that our country is truly exceptional," Senator Mitchell stated early on. "It is a place of opportunity and, contrary to many assertions, the American Dream is not dead. I grew up in my parents' home and witnessed their lives of struggle, all of it lived on the abyss of failure. My mother worked for fifty years on the night shift in textile mills while raising five children. My father was a janitor in a local school. My mother could not read or write. My father had little education. They died penniless. In their minds, though, by their standards, they were very successful, because their dream was for their children to get an education and live better lives... Because of them, and because of the openness of American society...each of us did. That said, I think that a young boy today...born into the same circumstances that I was born and raised in, has less chance for upward mobility than I had. It's a failure of our society... In this we have regressed."
On the reversal of the assault weapons ban that he helped pass as Majority Leader: "The only way we could get it passed was to make it for ten years and then there was a 'sunset provision;' it would expire naturally unless it was again re-enacted. The politics in the United States changed so much that it was not re-enacted and could not now be re-enacted... Given the divide in American politics, given the enormous influence of those who favor less restriction on the use of guns, it is unlikely that there will be any further gun control measures in the near future... My hope is that this administration and the next incoming one will at least attempt to improve the record on the issue of background checks. Everybody agrees that there are certain people in this society out of whose hands guns should be kept."
On the peace that he helped broker in Northern Ireland: "It's still imperfect. Seventeen years later it remains a segregated society and a divided society. But they're no longer killing each other to resolve their problems; they're debating and discussing them, albeit with a great deal of difficulty."
On Israel and the Palestinians, with whom he has negotiated without achieving peace: "Israel has a state; a very successful state... It is impressive and moving. But the people of Israel do not have reasonable and sustainable security. The Palestinians, on the other hand, don't have a state. And they ought to have one. Our American Declaration of Independence is quite clear on the right of people to govern themselves. But the Palestinians are not going to get a state until the people of Israel have security. Israel can't get that until the Palestinians have a state... I think ultimately, on that basis, there will be an agreement. Both societies are divided. Both governments are divided. But it is in both societies' interest to have an agreement. And so I believe that will happen."
On the dysfunction in American politics today: "Often when I'm asked about it, I think of Winston Churchill. It's a common question here [in the U.S.]; it's an even more common question outside of this country, where many non-Americans who admire our country are baffled by what they see as a dysfunctional political process. In answer, I quote Winston Churchill, who said that Democracy is the worst possible form of government, except for everything else that human beings have ever tried."