John Kasich - Two Paths: America Divided or United

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To Karen, Emma, and Reese, always

And to everyone whos ever helped me in my career and given me the chance to be a leader

Mans mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Like many of you, Im more and more troubled by the ideological hardening thats taken hold in Americaand all over the world, in factsince the hardcover edition of this book was published. Basically, weve spent a year headed down the wrong path, but there is reason to hope we can get back on the right one, and it lies in the untapped wellspring of the great many reasonable people out there who are able to see past ideological blindfolds.

It lies in the indefatigable spirit of the American people, who even in the most difficult times find a way to look up instead of down, forward instead of back. I see this most of all in the Gen X-ers and the millennials. Really, I couldnt be more excited about the positive energy of the young people I meet as I travel the countrytheyre wired in this wonderful way. Theyre not angry or judgmental. Theyre open to new ideas, interested in new experiences. Theyre willing to take a smaller paycheck if they can be involved in something meaningful. And they believe that our problems ought to be solved, not set aside.

It also lies in the ways we continue to come together in times of crisis. When Hurricane Harvey devastated the city of Houston and inspired a flood of first responders to help in what ways they could when a celebrated chef flew with his crew, at his own expense, in order to serve thousands of meals to Puerto Rican residents who were left without food and water and electricity after the devastation of Hurricane Maria when hundreds of brave concertgoers put themselves in harms way to provide cover or comfort to the victims of that terrible mass shooting in Las Vegas when neighbors took in neighbors displaced by the California wildfires, we saw the very best of who we are as Americans. What I saw in those acts of selflessness was that Gods laws are written on our hearts. That we are instinctively wired to do the right thing, to do right by each other. That we have the capability to do good when we see real trouble right in front of us.

And yet the polarization I address in the pages ahead has gotten worse. Its not just in politicsthats the one thing people tend to overlook. The coarsening of our culture runs through all aspects of our society, where were seeing an erosion of the values that our mothers and fathers taught us. Our shared moral compass is leading us to places were not proud of, whether its the scandals were seeing in the world of sports, the scandals in business, the mixing of religion and politics, the unbelievable meltdown in Hollywood, and on and on. And of course it doesnt help when many of our leaders too many of our leaders, reaching all the way to the White Houseare the very ones driving this polarization.

One of the themes that runs through all of my books is that we shouldnt wait for some knight on horseback to ride into town and solve our problems for us. Ive always maintained that the answers to our problems live in our communities, and I still believe in taking the bottom-up approach to our challenges, only now Im starting to realize that I need to expand my thinking to include a middle-out move as well. What do I mean by this? Well, those folks on the far right and the far left are so entrenched in their ways that we need the reasonable folks in the middle to make their voices heard and maybe pull those outliers back into the fold a little bit.

Our rapidly changing digital economy is one of the biggest obstacles in our path. This new economy is going to displace people, no question. It already has, in a lot of sectors. But at the same time it will also create new jobs, new opportunities. Trouble is, our educational system hasnt been able to recalibrate the curriculum to shift with the times, while many of our business leaders seem unwilling to engage in meeting this changing landscape. I mean, if youre a coal miner or a steel worker, those jobs arent coming back, and instead of pointing fingers, we ought to be helping those folks prepare to fill the new jobs that are springing up in their place.

These changes to our economy are coming at us faster than ever beforetheyre seismicand if we dont address them in a way that allows us to repurpose our workforce, the economic insecurity people are feeling will only get worse. Already, theres a lot of anger out there, and one of the root causes of that anger is that people are feeling vulnerable. Theyve either lost their jobs, or their wages arent keeping pace with the cost of living, or theyre worried they havent saved enough for retirement. Or maybe theyre seeing their kids struggling, unable to find a good job and thus unable to get out from under the pile of student debt they took on because thats what they believed they had to do in order to get that good job. Whatever it is, our institutions are just not addressing these concerns in any kind of meaningful wayin part because no one in a leadership capacity is pushing the conversation. And yet if we dont find a way to talk about the ever-widening space between the haves and the have-nots, if we dont address the economic uncertainty that has taken hold, the divisions were seeing are going to be exacerbated.

The good news here is that if you listen to the hue and cry thats coming from the middle-out, the American people are demanding some kind of change. You hear it from our young people, and across the grassroots of the heartland. Since the last presidential election, Ive spoken at a number of places, to audiences that wouldnt normally be so receptive to my message of God and faith and the positive direction it can gift to all of us. Those values we got from our parents? We need to find a way to stand up for them, so that we can improve the world in which we live, whether its fighting drug abuse, looking in on an elderly neighbor, feeding the hungry, mentoring our young people, or working to improve our schools. Our individual actions matter, they do, and that message is taking hold. People are listening. And theyre not just listeningtheyre listening carefully pro-actively . I can tell when folks are just kind of rolling their eyes, but theres an openness to these audiences, a willingness to engage on this all-important issue that I find thrilling, promising.

Look, were not reaching for sainthood here. Were all weak. We all fail. Were all flawed. The fast pace and intensity of our lives can sometimes obscure those principles we hold in our hearts. But we all have to do a little bit better job of standing up at times, when things might appear to be at their darkest and most difficult. No matter who we are or where we find ourselves. Just a little bit better thats all it will take, for those of us who live and breathe in the reasonable middle, across the board.

Do what you can, where you are, and Im betting hoping praying that one day soon well look up and see that the two paths weve been walking, the high road and the low road, will have somehow merged into one: the way forward.