OK, so you can tell from the title of this post no way I’m thinking it’ll be a woman. But I do think there will be a man, a single individual who emerges as leader. As unambiguous leader of the American opposition.
Anyone familiar with my work knows I am not leader centric. I have argued for years that leadership is not a person. It is a system with three parts, each of which is equally important: 1) leader; 2) followers; 3) contexts.
But there are situations in which one or another of these three parts is more important than the other two. For example, Los Angeles is now a story not about a single individual such as the mayor, or the governor of California. Nor is it about Angelinos generally. Rather for months if not years to come the story of the city will be about context: about Los Angeles as a safe and secure place in which to live and work.
So, hard to tell what the United States will look like, say, two years from now. But my best guess is that the landscape – and I don’t mean just the political landscape – will still be dominated by President Donald Trump. This suggests that if the Democrats want to take away his power they will have to have a leader worthy of the task. A leader capable of capturing not just American hearts and minds – but their attention and imagination.
No ordinary leader will do – Trump is too forceful a presence. Even when he stumbles, he looms, he’s larger than life, he steals the spotlight. So, the opposition will need a man at the helm – please, ladies, don’t mess with the messenger – who is his match. Who, like Trump, dominates. Who, like Trump, is magnetic. Who, like Trump, sucks the air out of the room.
Suggestions? Nominations?