The man meets moment theory of leadership – which is not so much a coherent theory as a free-floating idea – goes back a century or more. (Hence the word “man.”) It claims that great leaders are forged less by their traits than by the fit between their traits and the times in which they live. If this fit is extraordinarily good, great leadership can and sometimes does emerge.
The example that’s often used is that of Winston Churchill. In the years leading up to World War II, as a member of parliament Churchill warned repeatedly that Adolf Hitler was a menace to Europe, including to Great Britain. Notwithstanding the power of his argument, and the eloquence with which he articulated it, neither it nor he got any traction. More specifically, Churchill got no traction until the circumstance changed. Until September 1, 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland and Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the two-years between 1938 and 1940, when Churchill became prime minister, it was not he who changed. What changed was the context within which he was situated.
Same now. Same now as America’s longtime political curmudgeon – marginalized for most of his political life – moves from sideshow to center stage. Along with Representative Alexandria Ocacio-Cortez, Vermont’s Senator Bernie Sanders is suddenly killing it. Drawing enormous crowds wherever and whenever they appear, it’s apparent they are tapping into the feelings of Americans furious at their president but lost without a leader to personify their anxiety.
To be clear, Sanders is not new to the national stage. He became a familiar figure in 2016 when he himself ran for president. Moreover, when he ran against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries he had a considerable constituency. But thereafter, he was, again, marginalized, on the outside not the inside of American politics, presumably permanently.
Until now. Now – though his face is more deeply lined, his posture somewhat stooped, and his hair whiter and wispier – his voice still rings and, more to the point, his message remains unchanged. Now as always he rails against capitalism in its current incarnation. And he advocates for just about everything historically associated with the American left, including taxing the rich, strong unions, raising the minimum wage, and Medicare for all.
Moreover, Sanders’s anger is as palpable as it ever was – made the more real, the more visceral, because of what he is now angry about and who he is now angry at. Now his opposition is to an oligarchical administration and to the man who controls it. To an American president who embodies everything – politically and personally – that Sanders has been raging against for decades.
Man meets moment. A theory of leadership that at the present is in practice.