The topic that immediately comes to mind in a lecture series titled "The American Presidency and Moral Leadership" was not what David Gergen intended for yesterday's installment of a two-part lecture sequence at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy.
"It's tempting to talk about [President Bill] Clinton and his travails," Gergen said. "I think that would be a mistake."
The crowd instead heard Gergen use examples from Aristotle to Lyndon Johnson to illustrate the historical precedents governments have in dictating and legislating a moral code. Gergen's two-hour speech, titled "The Ethics of Leadership," proceeded much like a class-readings were distributed to accompany the Internet material audience members had been asked to read beforehand.
Gergen, an editor-at-large of U.S. News and World Report who is writing a book on 20th century presidential leadership, has decades of experience in the White House. An aide to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Clinton, Gergen joked his memoir could be titled From Watergate to Whitewater.
Although Gergen has retained his position at the University as visiting professor of public policy, he has stopped teaching a spring seminar at Duke to begin a five-year appointment at Harvard University. Gergen, however, still serves on the advisory board of the University's Kenan Ethics Program.
Early in the lecture, Gergen asked the audience to list Americans they consider moral leaders. After writing names including Martin Luther King, Jr., Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln on the board, Gergen explained similarities between them.
"When they've asked what type of country this should be," he said, "they've gone back to the Declaration of Independence."
For Gergen, the Declaration stands as the most salient form of moral direction Americans have. He contrasted Aristotle's views that the purpose of government is to encourage citizens to lead a virtuous life with Machiavelli's belief that the government exists to preserve order. In America, the founders intended government to blend both, Gergen said, adding that the country has since lost a moral ideology.
"Nobody is arguing for virtue," he said. "We have a naked public square.... We no longer understand moral leadership the way the founders thought about it. We've left a vacuum."
Gergen then examined the phenomenon of moral leaders who use "sleazy" techniques-such as negative campaigning-to eventually achieve public good. Leaders' actions often demonstrate a lack of moral conviction, but the public must use caution and analyze situations individually, Gergen said.
In his final thoughts, Gergen gave a preview of today's lecture, titled "Public Life vs. Private Life."
"Martin Luther King has been the greatest moral leader of my lifetime," he said. "Yet if you look at his private life, it's anything but a model."
The 4:00 p.m. lecture in room of 04 of the Sanford Institute is free and open to the public.
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