Secretary Andy Card, who served as Secretary of Transportation under President George H.W. Bush and Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush, sat down with the Presidential Leadership Scholars team in College Station, Texas, to talk about the lessons he learned from the 41st and 43rd presidents, his hope for the future of PLS, and why the program is important to our democracy.
We’re here in College Station for the Presidential Leadership Scholars program, where Scholars are learning about strategic partnerships through the lens of President George H.W. Bush’s Administration. Is there a specific time that sticks out to you when you saw President Bush’s ability to build those strategic partnerships to advance a goal?
President Bush (41) had a remarkable ability to understand how to build a partnership. And he exhibited that first by having a remarkable best friend, James A. Baker III. And they were candid with each other. They both accepted missions and worked toward the common good. They weren’t afraid to do that. They were competitive, but they never shot down the other. It was like they lifted each other up more than they knocked each other down. But also, George H.W. Bush, working with Jim Baker, created partnerships in politics that they couldn’t have done without each other.
Jim Baker was at the Commerce Department as an assistant secretary, or an undersecretary, and he didn’t have a political base. George H.W. Bush had been in office, but he didn’t really have much of a political base. But their partnership ended up being recognized as valuable to President Ronald Reagan and then became more recognized by leaders around the world. They ended up having a partnership that built coalitions. And one of the biggest coalitions in the history of politics was actually the coalition that helped the first Gulf War. It was Jim Baker and George H.W. Bush, who worked the phones, jumped on planes, saw people, said, “we need your help.” They were going to do it. [They said]: “We can’t let Iraq erase Kuwait, and we’re not going to do it alone. We’re going to do it with partners, and we are going to respect you being a partner. Come with us.”
And that was just one example. It happens to be a very significant example.
Think of what happened when the Berlin Wall came down. I think it was remarkable that, number one, they helped make it possible for the Berlin Wall to come down, for the Cold War to end without turning into a hot war.
And they had the courage to reach out to the Germans, the East Germans, the West Germans, the French, the British, and say, “This is going to work. This is going to be good. There’s going to be a unified Germany.” And that was a done by building partnerships and taking the time to build relationships and see the value of those relationships and forgive people for things that had been done in the past. And empower them to do the right thing the next time.
President Bush and Mrs. Barbara Bush had the opportunity to be involved in PLS and interact with Scholars in College Station. From your perspective, how does their legacy live on through PLS now that they’re no longer here?
The Bush legacy — it’s a capital BUSH legacy – is not just 41 or 43 or Barbara Bush or Laura Bush. It’s actually the entire Bush family, including the grandkids, committed to making sure leaders have opportunities to understand what it means to be a leader and some real-world practical advice on how to make a difference doing it.
PLS is now a great gift to our democracy. Because the people that are selected to be part of it are empowered to be leaders. And you’re taught how to use that empowered leadership responsibility in a way that it is not going to stay in one spot. It’s supposed to spread. I think the PLS program guarantees that the “We” in the Constitution will always be more than one person because at a minimum, PLS graduates are going to be part of the “We.” They’re going to get involved.
As PLS celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, what is your hope for the future of the program?
Number one, I hope that those who graduate from PLS maintain the friendships made through the program and maintain the relationship with PLS. I think the alumni network is critically important to creating a climate where people say they promised to make a difference, and they’ve made a difference. And to be able to write the book such that the chapters never end. It’s not a brochure. [PLS] is going to be a collection of success stories that will define what it means to be a citizen in a democracy.
PLS is a great program. I’m very proud of the fact that the presidents that were involved in saying, “Yes, we want to be part of it,” and maintained an expectation that their legacy would always include the program.
PLS is not inviting people in just to talk about yesterday. It’s people who are actually eager to be part of the solution tomorrow.
The Scholars in the program learn about leadership through the lens of each of the four presidents involved. What’s a leadership lesson that you took away from working for both President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush?
I’m going to say respect. They respect the United States of America, they respect of the Constitution, they respect the people who join the military. They respect the people who sacrificed because of the call to duty. They respect the institutions that define government. They respect the invitation to be part of it, and they’re not exclusionary. They are not keeping others from participating. They’re inviting them all to participate. You don’t find them turning people away from democracy, you find them inviting them come in. There’s no polarization. Partisan politics sometimes invites polarization. I can honestly say I think the Bushes have always been the definition of tearing down biases rather than multiplying them.
I think the Scholars who go through the PLS program, number one, are not monolithic in their thinking. They shouldn’t be. They are open to learn and to gain knowledge. Maybe they didn’t know as much as they thought they knew. And they’re willing to help polish the path to a better decision by getting in and engaging in the process of bringing policy to reality.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
