Despite everything, John Kerry remains an optimist
John Kerry in his new memoir describes the process of pushing a climate-change bill in 2009. He was at the time a United States senator from Massachusetts. He was working with a prominent Republican, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as well as an independent in Joe Lieberman from Connecticut. He had Big Oil cooperation and backing from Texas businessman T. Boone Pickens.
Ultimately, immigration was ahead of climate change in the queue. Graham dropped out because he could take only so much pushback from constituents. And like that it came undone.
“The Senate wasn’t the Senate anymore,” Kerry writes.
Things haven’t improved since.
“The Senate, simply put, is broken today,” Kerry says during a phone call. “It’s something I’ve talked about with this book. It’s not the rules of the Senate that have changed dramatically. It’s the people. The people have created an ideology hotbed where you can’t express any individuality without being punished. Both sides are guilty of this.”
On Saturday, Kerry brings “Every Day Is Extra” to Houston, where he’ll speak about the memoir at the Progressive Forum. The book charts his youth as the world-traveling son of a diplomat, followed by his enlisting in the Navy during the Vietnam War and his divisive involvement upon his return with the anti-war movement. It steers through his rise in politics to the Senate, and the close-call presidential campaign of 2004. Then more time in the Senate, and then his service as secretary of state under President Barack Obama.
Vietnam is a fascinating fissure throughout the book, one that runs from the moment he enlists to the present. But Kerry spoke of his friendship with another veteran of that war, the late Sen. John McCain, as a source of hope even in divisive times.
In the book, Kerry describes McCain as being initially wary of him: Many veterans were infuriated by statements Kerry made after his time in the service. But he suggests his and McCain’s friendship remains proof that the worst of disagreements can be reconciled. “The protester and the POW found a way to come together and do something significant with regard to Vietnam and lingering questions about POWs. To me that meant we could solve any kind of problem. It speaks to John McCain’s quality as a person that we found this space despite coming from two poles of polarization. And once we got over that, we began to better understand each other.”
The book, Kerry says, is “not meant to be a secretaryof-state policy tome. It’s a journey described, and in its own way, a road map to some things I think we need to be doing today. To work in a bipartisan way like John McCain and I did. To hold Washington accountable.”
Kerry and the present administration have been at odds in public over the past few weeks. A Boston Globe story referred to his “shadow diplomacy” efforts with Iran’s foreign minister to salvage a nuclear arms deal struck with that nation during Kerry’s time as secretary of state. In May, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would be extracting itself from the deal.
Kerry recently has come under fire for the meetings. Current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Kerry of “actively undermining” the administration. Trump tweeted about it, naturally. And Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida called for the Justice Department to investigate.
Kerry calls the past week “unfortunate. … Let’s be clear: Since the administration changed its policy and moved in a different direction, I’ve had zero meetings.”
Yet Kerry recently has been quite critical of the president — he told TV host Bill Maher “he’s got the maturity of an 8-year-old boy with the insecurity of a teenage girl” — his criticisms when we spoke were less focused.
“I see a path forward, but it requires individuals — particularly those in positions of leadership — to make a conscious decision not to try to exploit every issue that comes along. Fight on some, but pick some key priorities. … Unfortunately, you have firebrands on both sides, so all issues are being held in limbo.”
He was heartened to hear from historian Jon Meacham, who read Kerry’s book and passed along admiration. He likes to think “Every Day Is Extra” — like Meacham’s “The Soul of America” — presents problems as something to be solved rather than left to worsen.
“This is still a remarkable country, to be honest,” Kerry says. “I still look at all the opportunity we have here. So I don’t have a lot of patience with complainers. We’ve made so much progress, curing disease, we’re living longer. Women are doing better than decades before; it’s not enough still. The transition has been dramatic. But we need to get control of things that we haven’t been paying attention to. The things that have been left alone and are causing anger: workplace wages, health care. People are fed up with their dysfunctional Congress. These are the things making people angry.”
Kerry says Obama thought him too optimistic.
“I am optimistic,” he says. “I’ve always been optimistic. But I’m convinced we can work through all this. Meacham’s book goes through American history — the Civil War, the Red Scare — and we’ve been through some tough stuff. But we always come out better.”