America Facing Historic ‘Crisis,’ Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Says

One hundred years ago, the governors of five states belonged to the Ku Klux Klan. Fifty years ago, George Wallace won 13.5% of the vote for president on a segregationist platform.

"So when I'm asked, as I always am, 'Has it ever been this bad?' The answer is yes. It has been," said Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer who spoke to Insured Retirement Institute members Wednesday afternoon. "We are only half a century into the experiment in a multi-ethnic, racially diverse, fully constitutionally inclusive America."

Meacham, who won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, joined IRI's Supply Chain Summit for his keynote address, "The Power of Hope." The title refers to Meacham's latest book, His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope, released Aug. 25.

IRI's annual conference was supposed to take place in Chicago, with Meacham headlining. The 51-year-old writer sought to assure members that the rocky road accompanying Donald Trump's presidency is not as apocalyptic as it might seem to some.

"That is not to say that we are not in a crisis now. We are," Meacham said. "It is to say that this sense of crisis is far more often the rule than the exception in American life."

Meacham traces the fully realized "multi-ethnic, racially diverse, fully constitutionally inclusive America" to the end of the progressive 1960s. That decade saw the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

'Willing To Die'

The late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., was heavily involved in the protest movement that led to those legislative victories. Lewis was elected to Congress in 1987 and would meet a young Jon Meacham, then a reporter for the Chattanooga Times, on election night in 1992.

"I walked up and I tremulously asked him a couple of questions, and it began a conversation that really did run all those 28 years about faith," Meacham recalled. "He would not have been on that bridge, he would not have been on those buses, he would not have been in those department stores, if not for the gospel of Jesus. People can roll their eyes or tune out if they want, but he was willing to die for it."

Lewis, 80, died July 20 from cancer, fighting to the end for equality and opportunities for all. Trump's election in 2016 gave Lewis a closing final act, as he embraced his role as "the conscience of the Congress," as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., referred to Lewis.

Whether he was fighting for the "Dreamers," the children of immigrants, or battling the Trump administration over a legislative issue, Lewis never surrendered him hope and expectation that America would become that perfect union, Meacham said.

Lewis and Meacham debated the concept of a realistic utopian society for much of the 28 years they knew one another, he said.

"He believed that if you and I oriented our hearts and our minds in the right direction, if we oriented toward being generous, not greedy, being sacrificial, not selfish, by being open, not closed, by building bridges, not by building walls -- if we all did that, then we could actually bring the Kingdom of God to what John and Dr. King called the beloved community," Meacham said.

"We have always grown stronger the more widely we have opened our arms. I don't think we'll ever reach perfection. John Lewis did and he was willing to die for that."

America is not that far removed from a time when trust in government polled at 77% positive, Meacham said, citing Gallup polling from the early 1960s. Certainly the country faced serious issues, Civil Rights foremost among them, but the widespread wealth enjoyed by the middle class made change easier, he explained.

"No democracy in the history of the world has endured and thrived without a vigorous middle class, governed by the rule of law, driven by a promise that work will be rewarded," Meacham said, "and that the institutions in which we entrust some part of our capital, and a good part of our lives will be, if not wholly responsive to our needs, will be, in fact, trustworthy.

"That's the covenant that in many ways, under extraordinary pressure at the moment."

Biden Endorsement

Meacham stressed his nonpartisan beliefs throughout his hour-long talk, telling the audience he has voted for both Democratic and Republican candidates for president. The Nashville resident wrote a 2015 book on President George H.W. Bush and has a deal to write a biography of President George W. Bush as well.

Still, Meacham took a rare step into the political ring in July with an endorsement of Democratic nominee Joe Biden. He was asked about it during the IRI question-and-answer period and explained that decision.

"I believe that this election is as important as 1860 and 1864, because the incumbent president has repeatedly demonstrated, not threatened but demonstrated, that he has very little regard to no regard for the constitutional norms and practice that have characterized our finest hours," Meacham said.

"I wanted to be able to say, to my 18-year-old, 16-year-old and 12-year-old that in what I see as a moment of constitutional stress, and a crisis of decency and public life, that I had done something great."

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.

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InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.