Joe Biden is the Servant-Leader America needs in this Moment.
I had the privilege of helping elect a U.S. president and serving my country over eight years of some of the hardest but most fulfilling work I’ve ever done. Through an economic recovery effort, the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and unprecedented expansion of LGBTQ+ rights, I was able to serve alongside some of the most brilliant and good-hearted public servants I’ll likely ever have the opportunity to work with. There is a camaraderie born only out of serving together on the front lines of democracy that can never be replaced.
Through that work, I saw firsthand how the choice of whom we elect to the presidency is so much more than just the person themself. While the buck always stops with the president, in some ways it is more important to select someone who has the wisdom and values to exercise sound judgement when hiring the team that will lead the government for four years. Every day across the political appointee ecosystem and the White House complex, there are thousands of decisions made which advance a president’s vision for America and our place in the world. And while the toughest decisions are reserved solely for the occupant of the Oval Office, it is important not to overlook those who are empowered and delegated the trust of the president, and, by extension, the trust of the American people.
In short, the character of the president and all the people they hire matters. I believe this so deeply and personally that I’ve written a long form article about it as a way to repair our broken politics. Rewarding servant-leaders who believe in functional government that has a positive impact on the lives of citizens is crucial to the heart of our democracy.
“The character of the president and all the people they hire matters.”
Barack Obama was one of those special servant-leaders who shouldered the burden of making heavy decisions reserved for the toughest job in the world thoughtfully and with dignity. He also had the wisdom to hire amazing people who cared deeply about other Americans and placed a priority on making government work for them. Joe Biden, as demonstrated by being selected running mate with President Obama, is also one of those servant-leaders who surrounds himself with a great team. And now we have the opportunity to extend the privilege of governing to him once again.
If the past four years of turmoil, vitriol, division, and utter lack of a coherent governing plan have taught us anything, it’s that unscrupulous character has a disastrous effect on the administration of our country’s institutions — and unfortunately also to the detriment of America’s citizens most acutely. The COVID-19 pandemic in particular has brought to the forefront the consequences of electing leaders devoid of moral clarity, who in turn appoint people with similar disdain for the functions of government and who seem to have no interest in actually taking responsibility for a leadership role in helping a desperate country navigate its way out of a mortal threat to everyday Americans’ lives. It is said that “If you want to find out what a man is to the bottom, give him power” (Ingersoll, 1883). It is very clear now what the current inhabitant of the Oval Office has done with the power given to him — abuse is the only word for it. A change in leadership and reinstating accountability is now in order.
From the Obama Administration perspective, Vice President Biden and his team always held a special place in our hearts. The VP coordinated the economic recovery in 2009, represented us as a stalwart ally to our friends abroad, and spoke out on marriage equality early in a rare example of getting ahead of the overall team and message — but which for the LGBTQ appointees endeared him to us that much more for taking the risk. On the afternoon of June 26, 2015 after the shockwave from the Obergefell decision, many of us across the White House complex were invited along to the Vice President’s office in the Eisenhower Building where his staff had pulled together an on-the-spot celebration. We hugged, cried, and raised a glass in honor of that huge milestone and all the effort put in by so many people before us in order to realize that day. It was comforting to be among friends as we endeavored to grasp the enormity of that moment and soak in the atmosphere of a White House lit in rainbow as the sun sat on that humid summer night.
It was fitting that we began that evening on the Vice President’s balcony as it reflected the warmness with which he cared for his staff and the support he gave us during such an emotional and jubilant occasion. Vice President Biden is a man who will listen to you, empathize with you, and support you on a very personal level despite whatever the issue of the day is. We all knew that even though he may not identify personally with whatever the issue in question was, he cared deeply for his team and supported them in it. You knew he had your back — always.
That’s the kind of man Vice President Biden is. And that’s the kind of leadership he’ll bring back to the White House. The character of the people hired to run the daily business of these high offices says a lot about a leader. Electing Joe Biden provides a clear path that will return to normalcy very basic elements like respect and collaboration with partners across branches of government, adherence to separation between campaign activities and government activities under the Hatch Act, truth and honesty on financial disclosure forms and background investigations, protection against conflicts of interest, and — at the end of the day — a general sense of humility in recognizing that public servants work for the American people instead of the other way around.
The vice president’s team was always one of my favorites to work with. By necessity, the number of vice presidential staff is much smaller than the President’s. They always had a general sense of no nonsense and getting more done with less. But specifically the Biden team was always grateful for my team’s help, always easy and flexible to work with, and always supportive of doing the very best job we could together with the tools we had at our disposal. I have no doubt that he will do that all over again with an even bigger staff on an even larger scale once we return him to the helm of government to take command of righting the ship of America during this troubled time and getting us back on course to a more perfect union.
I hope you’ll join us in the effort to extend to him that privilege of leadership — if, for nothing else, to say with your ballot that the character of our leaders matters and that good character and judgement must be rewarded. Let’s get to work on making a Biden presidency a reality — together.
Rusty D. Pickens is the Founder of 580 Strategies, former Senior Advisor for Digital Platforms at the U.S. Department of State, and former Acting Director for New Media Technologies at the White House, where he led teams who operated cloud platforms for the Obama Administration to increase public engagement, improve user experience, enhance staff productivity, and heighten security posture. During this time, Rusty created new systems for and built new teams to lead Whitehouse.gov, the White House email outreach services, the Presidential correspondence system, the We The People petitions system, the White House Appointment Center, and the U.S. Embassy contact management systems.
Rusty’s two decades of leadership experience aligning organizational vision with technology strategy across top federal agencies and start-up environments included the Federal Salesforce Community of Excellence, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee, Obama for America 2008, and the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.