By Colleen O’Connor
Forget fancy polling, deep dive demographics, and grand ideas that require 30 years to germinate and endless tax dollars to fund.
Forget tweet storms, tiresome photo ops, and the obvious fake sincerity and “fake news” that accompanies almost every campaign.
Instead, study the woman who has outlasted three U.S. Presidents, four British prime ministers, four French leaders and six Italian heads of state.
The woman every aspiring politician—male or female—should study is Angela Merkel, the most powerful woman in the world. And, with her latest win on Sunday, she becomes the new, undisputed “leader of the free world.”
Winning Sunday’s election puts her in place to become the longest serving chancellor in postwar Germany history. This while overseeing the Greek debt crisis, Britain leaving the European Union, Trump’s disdain for NATO, and the massive refugee crisis.
No small feat.
Who is she and how does she do it?
Merkel is variously described as akin to “sphinxes, divas, and queens,” or as common as Ikea furniture and a “drudge.” Her motto: “Those who don’t drudge become stupid.”
No dummy, she holds a doctorate in quantum chemistry, loves to think, and is incorruptible.
For Merkel, “it is about the issue, not the ego. She begins the start of the legislative session with, ‘I will serve the nation.’”
The Economist magazine tried to distill Merkel’s three successful governing principles thusly: “stability, pragmatism and fundamental decency.”
Plus, an inner compass—her Lutheran faith.
Put another way, Merkel is “ethical not ideological; reactive, not programmatic; detached, not engaged.” A scientist.
More bluntly, Merkel is “the most powerful woman in the world in a world of unstable men.”
And the Germans value stability.
How did she survive the refugee crisis in which nearly a million people flooded through Germany’s borders? At first, she welcomed them, appealing to German pride, with “we can handle it.”
Then, she negotiated with the Turkish government to stop the flow. Later, she quietly, but effectively, choked off the supply routes and tackled the smugglers.
Finally, she admitted in a speech, that “multiculturalism has failed.” It leads only to “parallel societies.”
For that bit of honesty she received a solid nine minutes of applause that she, herself, interrupted with: “Thanks, but we have work to do.”
On later reflection, she reframed the migrant issue in moral terms.
“If we made a mistake,” she said, “then it wasn’t in taking in people, but rather that we didn’t pay attention to the fact that people in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Syria didn’t have enough to eat, weren’t getting an education and put themselves into the hands of people smugglers.”
When attacked, Merkel mostly shrugs, delivers a subtle putdown and carries on.
As the Economist reported, “At a recent rally…. protesters heckled, kazooed and klaxoned the chancellor. Barely audible, she ploughed on unruffled: ‘Some have decided to spend the next four years yelling,’ she ad-libbed with a shrug and a smile.”
When protesters threw tomatoes at her, she didn’t flinch. In fact, she wore her tomato-stained suit to that evening’s interview.
As the New York Times wrote, “if the free world is best led by success, with step-by-step repair preferable to scrapping, then the German chancellor seems to be the right woman, at the right moment, for the job.”
When asked about her place in the history books, she responded, ‘Historians will judge me by what I have avoided, not what I have done.’ ”
She has avoided numerous calamities, because “she’s been able to develop an image as someone who is tuned in to the German soul. She lets any aggression shown towards her… simply wash off.”
During the final week of the campaign, Merkel held a children’s press conference. Over 150 youngsters attended and asked questions about the Chancellor’s favorite animal, color, and when she lost her first tooth.
“Merkel seemed to enjoy the kids’ interest so much that she extended the question time, danced with the youngsters to pop music and invited all of them to pose for a photo with her — much to the surprise of her fluttered aides,” the Associated Press reported.
“The children seemed to equally enjoy the company of their country’s leader. Munching popcorn, ice cream, waffles and hot dogs, they enthusiastically applauded when Merkel entered the building and stood in line patiently at the end to get her autograph.”
Impossible to choreograph a better campaign finale than that. Impossible to imagine a more solid leader or successful politician.
Study her.
Colleen O’Connor is a native San Diegan and a retired college professor.
