Legacy of Leadership

So, the Saturday of Clarkson’s Celebration & Recognition of Excellence Weekend (CREW) took a turn that was unexpected and elating.  I am still processing the reality of this and remain humbled, surprised, and deeply grateful.  As I relayed to a colleague, whom I am sure was in on the scheme, I ought to be angry that I was so easily hoodwinked, but of course I cannot be, not even in the least.

First some prologue.  In 1996, at the annual Clarkson University spring University Recognition Day (URD) ceremony, I was inducted into Phalanx, Clarkson’s highest honor society.  It was a shock, an exceptionally emotional and joyous shock, that I was selected, as a Junior, to be a member of the most prestigious organization at the academic institution of my choosing.  Being inducted is an extremely high honor, and being so inducted as a Junior is an exceptionally high honor.  This is because you are chosen for what you’ve done to serve and lead within the Clarkson Community, not as a departure acknowledgement, but because you rose to such a level that you were selected over Seniors that likely had accomplished amazing things in their own right, and were given the daunting task of then leading the effort to select the next inductees the next year.  This is a weighty responsibility, especially as Clarkson was among the top Engineering, Science, and Business focused institutions in the United States (the MIT of New York State as a faculty at Syracuse University in 1992 once said).

Fast forward to 2015, having been only back to Clarkson for mere months, I found myself sitting in an interview, thanks to having been nominated by a peer or student for consideration of a university service or leadership award.  Easily being “found out” by virtue of my wearing my Phalanx pin on my sport coat lapel, I was of course ineligible for these awards.  You see, the long standing tradition holds that once you’ve been inducted into Phalanx, you are thereafter ineligible for the awards that Phalanx is privileged to make free selections for.  It led, however, to an even greater honor, serving as the faculty advisor of this esteemed organization.  Having gone through the process of choosing and arbitrating the inductees for 1997, I knew well that this role was not insignificant, but critical for Phalanx, and the university as a whole, having weighty ceremonial duties.  

URD, as I had known, but knew even better coming back as a faculty member, was one of the four most significant and public events at Clarkson; only to be rivaled by Commencement/Recognition events at the end of the Spring and Fall semesters and the annual opening Convocation that launched the academic year.  Unlike those others, this event, URD, is a ceremony for all students, all staff, all faculty members, and all community members.  This means it is the one time the spotlight is on the best, brightest, most accomplished among all, not just graduating students and incoming students.  The day has a long history, going back to 1929 when “Moving-up Day” events began (moving up as the students would advanced from one academic level to the next, e.g. Sophomores to Juniors, etc.).  It is the highest point in the academic year, with the penultimate significance to Spring Commencement.  So, as the advisor, making sure the ceremony, the process to get there, and the needed support to make it all possible, requires the ability and leadership needed to make it the event it needs to be, for everyone.

An added challenge is that Phalanx, as an organization, is the one to run this event, within the larger weekend of events.  CREW, as it’s now known, is a rather recent occurrence, pulling in many academic tear ending efforts including the annual STEMQuest competition, recognition for faculty research awards, the annual Research and Projects Showcase (RAPS), and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Access (DEIA) Dinner celebration.  Phalanx having been the catalyst that got this to coalesce around the annual URD ceremony (and now ceremonies).  This means that not only are you coordinating the event itself, but also working with numerous other groups to pull of a string of events that need to form a complete tableau.  This takes deftness and care, and is peer leadership on steroids.

The biggest challenge, however, is that the active members of Phalanx, as I indicated above, are the undergraduate students that were inducted the year before, with no appreciation of all the steps it takes to get all that is URD (and the wider CREW) accomplished.  It’s an annual exercise of setting fire to the phoenix, to see it get reborn, grow, and blaze again the next year.  So as advisor, given the gravity and significance of URD, it is not a “hands off” or “let the students run with it” exercise.  No, Phalanx reports to the University President, and no one else.  As advisor, it is your role to make sure the students succeed without dictating terms, but guiding, coaching, being present, and empowering the students to make the organization and the entire university shine with a glow that is emblematic of its promise.  It’s a high honor to do this, but I’ll also tell you it’s an enormous amount of work.  By the way, you don’t get paid more to do this, you don’t get relief from other responsibilities.  Yes, you get a bit more access to the President’s office than other standard faculty, for good and for the challenges that brings. Getting to be with some of the most amazing young adults, the ultimate over-achievers at an institution of over-achievers, is something really cool, no doubt.  These young people are going places.  And as you look at the profile of many of the alumni that have been “tapped” into Phalanx, you can tell this is the reality (the symbolic method used to induct members is to have them tapped in the shoulders using the University’s mace).  So just rubbing elbows can be its own reward. But it’s fundamentally a labor of love.  And, as my spouse will tell you, I do love it, even as it takes a pile of time.

So what did happen to me at the ceremony this year?  Well, the prologue isn’t quite done yet.  You see, in 2022, as a part of the URD events, officially hosted by the University President, two new awards were created by Phalanx in honor of the longest serving first couple of the institution who were retiring that June:  Karen and Anthony “Tony” Collins (this being the last time they would be said hosts).  The Karen Collins Legacy of Service and Tony Collins Legacy of Leadership awards were born to recognize them for their long-standing roles in the Clarkson community as well as those who had similar long lasting legacies of service and leadership at the institution.  In their creation, these awards were distinctly created to be given irregularly, but would be awards that can be given to inducted Phalanx members (and any others) whom Phalanx may determine worthy of such an honor.

I will admit the genesis of the idea was of my own making, mainly as we had to come up with a way to recognize Karen and Tony who were already inducted members.  But my motivation, and the students at the time, was also to spur the Phalanx Alumni Affinity Group and the university administration to begin a thoughtful process to begin recognizing long standing leaders and servers (members of Phalanx or those that weren’t) that deserved particular attention and further recognition as part of pantheon, if you will, of Golden Knights. If you will, a group of people that could be looked to as exemplars of the best parts of the Clarkson tradition and accomplishments in its amazing human talent over the decades.  Sadly, the intervening two years from the inception of the awards to this academic year, were ones that were bereft of the kind of institutional leadership at the top rungs that could actualize, with the Phalanx members and alumni, that needed exercise.  And with the significant, but exceptionally positive, upending that was the start of this academic year, I had no illusions that it was time to pick this up again for a push to create an inaugural Karen Collins Legacy of Service and Tony Collins Legacy of Leadership awards classes.  Embarrassingly, however, the Phalanx Students had other ideas.

You see, yup, they did it, they, out of the blue, under my nose, with a few helps from some friends, made me the first awardee of the Tony Collins Legacy of Leadership awardee besides its namesake.  As I opened, I was shocked, stunned, blown away, humbled, and yea, there was a moist set of eyes.  Juan-Pablo Sola-Thomas as President, with Kimberly Gomez, Abigail Vincent, Ella Weldy, Ryan Teplitzky, Grace Trowler, and Cayden Fernandez, all pulled it off and gave me an award.  It’s not something I sought.  As a matter of fact I thought that it was critical that I not be the advisor and well retired if I was ever even considered for these awards (stress on if ever).  No the likes of Steve “Newker” Newkofsky, or Robert “Soupy” Campbell, or Spencer “Spence” Thew, or Egon Matijevic, or H. George Davis, or Brad Broughton, or a ton of others ought to be well ahead of me in the great host of witnesses of Clarkson’s storied greatness.  But there I was, with no way to stop it, none.  Dumbfounded.  Given, as I’ve said, an unspeakable honor.  I cannot be more thankful to all of them, to Phalanx as an organization, and to my alma mater, Clarkson, for this honor.  While others have said to me I clearly am worthy, I’ll hold that with a very bold and well qualified asterisks.

So that’s what happened on April 12th, 2025, that caused me to pen this post.  A short social media thanks and announcement was clearly insufficient.  The need to place this in its context and its place in my heart needed a longer explanation.  It also comes as I am going to have to realign several of my roles at Clarkson in light of the mission I am willingly taking on to meet our greatest challenge the institution has ever been lucky enough to receive, representative of the Ken and Grace Solinsky Challenge.  It is one that I have some skills to bring to bear, but also one that will enable me to grow in new and distinct ways as I do my best to serve the institution well into the future.  More details will come out later, but it will require me to step out of the solo role as Phalanx Advisor going forward.  It is not something that I decided easily, but it is a bat-ton that I need to start passing.  And that too is a part of the legacy of leadership, which I’m, thankfully, learning quickly.  Thanks again for the honor, even as I question my worthiness.  I pray to live up to the expectations that it’s receipt implies.

This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?: Love for your Enemies

 

Lessons

 

Genesis 45:3-11, 15; Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40; 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50; Luke 6:27-38

 

Key Verses

 

Luke 6:27-28 “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; 28 bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you.”

 

Message

 

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”^[1]

 

Let us pray.  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and redeemer.”^[2]  Amen.

 

Good Evening.  So, here we are.  I do not know about you, but reading the news these days just infuriates me.  And that emotion isn’t coming from a frustration with X or Y media source; although I will admit that I often get infuriated with the “spin” or utter falseness that pervade several media sources.  No, what I am infuriated by is what is going on at the national level here in the United States of America.  Since inauguration day it has been a perpetual flow of non-stop “shock and awe” spewing forth from the administration.  If you follow me on social media, you certainly see my infuriation, way too often, come out in response.  To me, none of this is unexpected, what is happening by the administration, because there was a published playbook well ahead of the election last autumn that made it clear what a wrecking ball it was going to be and how incisive this assault was going to cut.  Who and how, however, is doing it all, is a bit surprising; but not in totality, just in how brazenly shady.  I will not go much further discussing the general situation, other than to say I fear greatly for how we see our way to the end of this epoch of American history.

 

Among those attacked, frontally, however, is us.  Yes, us, Lutherans.  I am sure you have heard by now that retired LTG Mike Flynn[3], on February 2^nd, sent out a tweet with a screenshot of a spreadsheet of data, related to Department of Treasury payments to various organizations, passed on to him by the operatives of the now infamous “Department of Government Efficiency”, aka DOGE[4].  If you haven’t, here is the direct post by Flynn:

 

“Now it’s the ‘Lutheran’ faith (this use of ‘religion’ as a money laundering operation must end):

 

Lutheran Family Services and affiliated organizations receive massive amounts of taxpayer dollars, and the numbers speak for themselves. These funds, total BILLIONS of American taxpayer dollars.

 

Here are just a few of the recent grants awarded (pre @RobertKennedyJr) by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):

 

LUTHERAN IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE SERVICE INC: $367,612,906

LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH, INC: $134,190,472.95

LUTHERAN SERVICES FLORIDA, INC.: $82,937,819.95

 

There are MANY more organizations cashing in on our hard-earned money. These entities are receiving huge sums, which raise serious questions about how taxpayer funds are being spent and who’s benefiting.

 

It’s time to hold these organizations accountable. American taxpayers deserve transparency. Enough is enough!

 

And there is much more where these screen shots below came from.”[5]

 

Most of what Flynn said in this post was flat out wrong and a lie.  What he got right was that indeed Lutheran Services America and Global Refuge (formerly Lutheran Refugee Services), along with their state wide organizations (not the fictitious “Lutheran Family Services” he posted), did receive significant grants from the federal government to perform specific services, and indeed the payments shown give a clear indication of the scale of those grants.  And I am quite sure there are many other “screens” of data he could share that show hundreds or more faith based organizations receiving payments from the government for specific task that they are conducting in support of federal grant programs (as the US Council of Catholic Bishops who are now taking legal action against the administration).  It is also true that these total billions of dollars in taxpayer money being spent.  But that is where any truth in his statements end.  Added to these false allegations was a piling on by the Head of DOGE, Mr. Elon Musk[6], and, of course, the current sitting, President of the United States.

 

The attack here so brazen and false, that the completely apolitical and famed Lutheran theologian Timothy Wengert[7] took to Facebook with a message about the attack.  He wrote:

 

“The time for silence has passed.  I have no choice but to speak, despite the fact that I have never posted anything political on Facebook before.  What Elon Musk and his satellite, Donald Trump, have said about the Lutheran Church and Lutheran Social Services is evil, not only because it is a lie but because it arises out of a hatred for "the widow, orphan, and stranger" in our midst.  As an emeritus professor of Lutheran theology, I used to warn my students that tyrants always begin to abuse their authority by attacking the church: whether an Episcopal bishop on inauguration day or now a group of churches (Lutheran) which, despite their size, had for years developed the largest non-governmental group of social service organizations in the country.  Such behavior is not only mean-spirited and (probably) unconstitutional, it is also against (anti-) Christianity itself.  Now, Lutherans are an odd group among Christians.  We hold that our relation to God is defined by grace, through faith, on account of Christ alone.  That is, we don't have to do good works to get into or stay in a right relation with God.  As a result, we Lutherans have all this time on our hands that other religious folk may not.  So, we help our neighbor so that we don't get bored--or, rather, so that spontaneously, out of the joy and thanksgiving for God's mercy toward us we turn that love toward others.  Lutheran Social Services is not the problem in this country; it offers hope and support for the least fortunate of all.  So, to Mr. Musk and all those who follow him, I offer this.  Come to my house, sit down with me, and I will explain to you why what you are doing and saying is evil.  Then, perhaps, you can let go of your lust for power and actually learn to use your wealth and position to help your neighbor in need rather than crush him or her.  St. Paul wrote that for Christians governmental authority is ‘God's servant for your good.’  It is time for those in authority to stop doing the opposite and start helping the very least of those here on earth.”[8]

 

ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton quickly responded with a video that very day calling out the numerous lies in Flynn’s statement and discussing exactly what these organizations are using these funds for and what their long standing mission has been. [9]  She also reminds us of our calling as church and what our Lutheran theology teaches us about these situations.  And she passed along what the church-wide organization is doing about it, but also what we can do.  I’d encourage you to go to the ELCA YouTube channel to watch the video yourself and to take action accordingly.

 

So, we have been attacked.  There is no question about it, we are in the crosshairs as Lutherans.  You probably don’t fully realize that every time we give an offering, a portion of that goes to the church-wide organization and specifically supports Lutheran Services America and Global Refuge.  Bishop Nathan Pipho, our New England Synod Bishop, highlighted how our benevolence to the Synod also supports “Ascentria Care Alliance (formerly Lutheran Social Services New England), [which] provides critical services throughout New England serving a variety of populations.”[10]  So we are guilty as charged for supporting these organizations and their mission.  To that end, given the very evil, hate, mistreatment and curse that is being put upon us, we now have a clear enemy for which we need to contend.

 

But here we are, with lessons today that seem to speak directly to our situation.  It is as if scripture is this God given tool that helps us in new ways for new circumstances, speaking certainly to those who were the first witnesses, but also at each time and place.  Christ, right here in the midst of his Sermon on the Plain[11] states that “[b]ut I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you.”[12]  Wow.  If there wasn’t a harder lesson to have to wrestle with this week, given our context, I couldn’t think of one.

 

If you are like me, when you read this, given things, you are like, “you have to be kidding right?  I have to love those that are vociferously attacking me and my faith, and do good to them?  That is insane!”  You and I would not be alone in being dumbfounded by this scripture.  As William Barclay offers in his commentary on this section of scripture, “There is no commandment of Jesus that has caused so much discussion and debate as the command to love our enemies.”[13]  What he goes on to say is that if you go to the Greek, the word for love here is “Agapate” sometimes translated as agape.  For those of us that were here for the study of CS Lewis’ book, “The Four Loves” that ought to bring back a recollection that the kind of love Jesus is talking about is not eros or erotic love (sexual/instinctive love), nor is it philas or friendly/brotherly love, nor is storge or affectionate love (the love we have for family and children).  No this is the perfect kind of all-encompassing love of God.  Jesus is saying here to agape our enemies.  This kind of love, agape, is unique, exceptionally powerful, and seemingly out of reach.  As William Barclay says, this kind of love, “… describes an active feeling of benevolence towards other people; it means that no matter what others do to us, we will never allow ourselves to desire anything but their highest good; we will deliberately, and of set purpose, go out of our way to be good and kind to them.”[14]  He goes on to say, “… this love towards our enemies is not only something of the heart; it is something of the will.”  As stated in another part of scripture, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”[15]

 

Well, this is probably a great time to remind us that each and every portion of scripture does speak law and gospel.  As Martin Luther once wrote, “Virtually the whole of the scriptures and the understanding of the whole of theology depends upon the true understanding of the law and the gospel.”[16]  To help me remember how this distinction and how to use it in understanding scripture, I use the adage that “the law accuses us in our sin and the gospel is the salve that cures our wounded soul.”  This isn’t always as easy as it seems.  For instance, I’d argue that this lesson, in our context, is speaking hard law right now, and seeing the gospel in it is challenging.

 

That said, using this very challenging piece of scripture in today’s Gospel lesson, lets tease out the law and the gospel here (pun intended).  First the law.  To begin with, according to one author, “The law is God's set of rules or demands regarding how we should be.” “The law is God's demand for our perfection. In order to be in right relationship with God … we have to be perfect like God.”[17]  Well certainly a command like this is a demand to be perfect with God.  Our resistance to it is certainly accusing us in our sin.  That is very much at the core of our apoplectic response to the idea of loving our enemies.  The law here, as we listen to Jesus, is acting “as a mirror to reflect to us our sinful selves.”[18]  So, I am going to admit it, having “an active feeling of benevolence towards” Mike Flynn or Elon Musk or the current President of the United States and desiring “anything but their highest good”, is next to impossible for me to do.  I stand fully accused by the law part of this lesson, and am without in sin.  And that impossibility, however, is probably ok, because the other thing that is true about the law is that “we can never use it to improve ourselves; this was never its function.”[19]  In other words, “the law exposes our failure to be better, to be perfect.  In light of this, our feeble attempts to improve ourselves here and there are laughable.”[20]  When it comes to this command to love our enemies, this most certainly is going to be true for me.

 

Luckily for us, however, we have the gospel as well, and that is the final word.  Yes, we are going to fail miserably at loving our enemies.  It is a sign that trying to do agape towards our enemies is indeed a willful act, one that we should and ought to do our best to live out (after all this is a command).  But ultimately, we lack the full will to get there, and God knows this.  That is why, “He has fulfilled the law on our behalf, has died for our sins on the cross, and has been raised again for our justification.”[21]  It is not our job to satisfy the law or this command fully, it has always been the plan that God stands in to do that for us:  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”[22]  The good news, the capital-G Gospel, is that “our relationship with God is not dependent on our works but on his completed work for us.  We are saved by grace through faith.  We believe that Jesus has already done everything for us so that we might be free from the obligation of the law and its penalty of death.  As a result, we are saved from having to be perfect on our own.  We are forgiven, and we stand in the fact that ‘it is finished’.”[23]  The final word here is that God’s free gift of grace which we receive through the gift of faith, allows us to try and fail, and it is OK.  As Martin Marty once said, “it is not that we have to” do what God calls us to do, it is that “we get to” do it.[24]  And we can come to peace with this hard teaching that we have in the Gospel lesson today, to love our enemies, even as they sting us with vile lies and distortions and cause serious harm which we need to take responsive action on.  And that is “[b]ecause we have been justified by faith, therefore we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”[25]  And for me, at least, that is very, very good news.

 

So to conclude, we are under attack fellow Lutherans.  There is no doubt and I am certain it will not be the last or final salvo in our direction.  We were told in scripture that “[b]lessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.  Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.”[26]  We are in good company for sure.  But we are to do our best not to fight back with the barbs thrown at us, but instead to respond in truth, justice, and love, agape, so that you can “… have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;” and “therefore God, your God, [will anoint] you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”[27]  It won’t be easy, nay it will be impossible, but if we rely on Christ and his will, we can indeed love our enemies and prevail for all times and all places.

 

Amen.

---

[1] 2 Corinthians 1:2

[2] Psalm 19:14

[3] The disgraced former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and short term National Security Advisor, who was convicted as a felon for false statements, and later pardoned by Donald Trump during his first administration.  A notorious conspiracy theorist and 2020 election denier as well as a prominent leader in the Christian nationalist movement:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Flynn

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Government_Efficiency

[5] https://x.com/GenFlynn/status/1885872007062892568

[6] Afrikaans-American Billionaire Businessman (current richest man in the world), owner of Tesla, Skylink, SpaceX, and Twitter.  A polarizing figure that is known to spread lies and conspiracy theories, now heading up DOGE after having been the single largest donor in the 2024 election in support of Donald Trump, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

[7] Famous for numerous articles, his teaching at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and his translation and editing of the Book of Concord with Robert Kolb (which is the go to version for English speaking Lutherans around the globe).

[8] https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15mMHs1mWz/

[9] https://youtu.be/Liqz0VdZG1E

[10] https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Avv7jbd5x/

[11] Yes, in Luke’s Gospel, this message in verse 17 of Chapter 6 stipulates that Jesus, “… came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.”  So this has been come to be known as the “Sermon in the Plain” which is Luke’s rendition of what Matthew says, starting at the opening of Chapter 5, “… he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.”  Commonly called the “Sermon on the Mount.”

[12] Luke 6:27-28

[13] Barclay, William, “The New Daily Study Bible, The Gospel of Luke”, pp. 93

[14] Barclay, William, “The New Daily Study Bible, The Gospel of Luke”, pp. 94

[15] Cf. John 6:60

[16] Gerhard Ebeling, Luther: An Introduction to His Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970), pp. 111.

[17] Norris, Sean, “An Introduction to the Law and Gospel”, Modern Reformation, Essay, 1 September 2010, https://www.modernreformation.org/resources/articles/an-introduction-to-the-law-and-the-gospel

[18] Norris, Sean, “An Introduction to the Law and Gospel”, Modern Reformation, Essay, 1 September 2010, https://www.modernreformation.org/resources/articles/an-introduction-to-the-law-and-the-gospel

[19] Norris, Sean, “An Introduction to the Law and Gospel”, Modern Reformation, Essay, 1 September 2010, https://www.modernreformation.org/resources/articles/an-introduction-to-the-law-and-the-gospel

[20] Norris, Sean, “An Introduction to the Law and Gospel”, Modern Reformation, Essay, 1 September 2010, https://www.modernreformation.org/resources/articles/an-introduction-to-the-law-and-the-gospel

[21] Norris, Sean, “An Introduction to the Law and Gospel”, Modern Reformation, Essay, 1 September 2010, https://www.modernreformation.org/resources/articles/an-introduction-to-the-law-and-the-gospel

[22] Matthew 5:17

[23] Norris, Sean, “An Introduction to the Law and Gospel”, Modern Reformation, Essay, 1 September 2010, https://www.modernreformation.org/resources/articles/an-introduction-to-the-law-and-the-gospel, Gal. 5:1, John 19:30

[24] Sermon by Jim Hazelwood in Potsdam, NY, exact date not recalled

[25] Romans 5:1

[26] Luke 6:22-23

[27] Hebrews 1:9

What’s holding Manufacturing back? CTR and Regulations? Not so much.

This post is in response to a Facebook post by a Mr. Eric July which had been reposted by an acquaintance Mr. Jay Pellegrino.  I met Jay through a mutual friend Josh Cantor and he happens to be a fellow Clarkson alumni.  While more conservative than I, I’ve come to find he’s equally pragmatic.  To that end, I responded.  Here is the link to the post I’m responding to below.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02rSGcSW4hHqJTLFhqLyX1hsBzkaiJ4xSXPR4Uc6WGpBJWJB525x1kBBT87Hx3V8GBl&id=100044485267539

I find it funny how people develop whole arguments based on cherry picked data and absent an elephant sized amount of context.  One can and should look at the period from just after WWII to the 1960s as the hay day of American manufacturing.  As a portion of GDP, in 1953 it was above 28%, while by 2017 we were at 12% (Source:  https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2017/april/us-manufacturing-really-declining,noting the authors go on to discuss GDP vs. Real GDP, a and how those percentages overstate the decline).  What’s also true is that the portion of the labor pool working in manufacturing has declined, having peaked at over 19 million workers in 1979 and never getting close that since (Source:  https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-9/forty-years-of-falling-manufacturing-employment.htm). So one ought to ask, if you are wanting to realize an improvement in domestic US manufacturing, what were the underlying reasons for said “golden era” so that we can apply those lessons now.

The author you posted posits this is because of a low corporate tax rate (CTR) and regulations.  But he starts at 1952 and doesn’t tell you what the rate is prior to that.  Well, here is a link to that data (as far back as I can find it):  https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/historical-corporate-tax-rates-brackets/.  If you look at the data, you’ll see that the CTR really doesn’t track all,that well with having spurred on manufacturing or not, given that the rates varied between 21% to 53% (depending on earnings) during WWII.  It’s also not lost on me how his whole argument shows an every declining CTR while at the same time manufacturing is declining.  It’s as if the whole argument that CTR having any effect on manufacturing is moot (which, it is and it isn’t).  And as for regulations, the author doesn’t explain what regulations are costing us manufacturing jobs or manufacturing output as a portion of GDP.  I submit that regulations cost something, and certainly regulatory schemes that are lax or imbalanced with our competition have an impact, but then there are the long term (e.g. healthcare costs, etc.) and other costs (e.g. health and well-being, lifespans, etc.) the come along the way that  ore than offset the short term gains.  I’ll come back to CTR and regulations later, but for now let’s get back to the massive elephant in the room about then and now, context.

Again, why was manufacturing in the US so powerful after WWII?  Well if we just sit back and pull in the global context, it’s not hard to realize it has very little to do with US tax policy and entirely everything to do with the rest of the world in relation to the US.  In 1945, the US stood as the only major economic power that did not have the ravages of war visited upon it.  Its manufacturing base was unscathed by a single bomb, its infrastructure had not been run over by tanks, its homes were fully left intact.  The war never made it to US shores, excepting Hawaii and several small Pacific territories, so rebuilding at home was not on the agenda.  And it also had just had a huge government infusion into the economy to build out the manufacturing sector to become the famed “arsenal of democracy”.  While there’d be a need to be retool to produce domestic goods instead of military wares, there was massive capacity to produce things already in place.  And then let’s not forget the financial status of the US both for the government and private sectors.  Yes, the US was by far the largest creditor nation, having helped bankrolled the war for the Allies and having encourage thrift and savings which could immediately be put to use to buy homes, retool, invest in education, new technologies, and become the unrivaled economic engine that it became within a decade.  And also contributing was massive foreign investment in friendly markets to ensure there were buyers for what America made and sold, as well as an obliteration of tariffs moving toward free trade that made market penetration deep and without much of a gate to worry about.

The point of all this is that CTR had next to nothing to do with why our manufacturing boom happened after WWII, it had much more to do with the fact we were practically the only ones able to manufacture goods at scale on the entire globe.  After Europe and Japan rebuilt and got humming again, this all started to slip.  With China finally getting out of its own way (and our “opening” with them) and now India, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa and South America getting in on the action (thanks to decades of stability and relative world peace), the US is in a much different place.  The pandemic highlighted a massive problem in this regard, in that we let it slide too far and for too many things.  We’ve created massive vulnerabilities by putting too much reliance on being able to get goods from places that may be working in completion if not being outright hostile to us and our way of life.  We also saw the fact that our investments in infrastructure made in the 50s and 60s were in need of reinvestment and redevelopment as were are getting outpaced by our competitors.  We need to do more to near shore or re-shore manufacturing, and fast.

Now I’ll say that among the only things I thought Trump et al did right in his first term was to cut the CTR to a historic low. Yes, it can’t be denied that we need the private sector to help create the jobs and prosperity to be able to compete and drive innovation.  I’ll admit we need to look at regulations, but not so much to eliminate them, but to streamline them, understand the short and long term costs, and to find ways to bring balance so as to not negatively effect the growth we need in manufacturing.  But the CTR reduction and the regulatory world don’t change the fundamentals that require other actions.  And his use of tariffs proved counterproductive for the economy and this change, because the reciprocal response tariffs prevented our goods from getting to the open markets we need to have to make a trade balance in our favor.  What was needed was direct investment in fixing our infrastructure (e.g. IIJA), investment in new and emerging technologies as well as proven areas of manufacturing market growth (e.g. IRA and CHIPS Act, even as more needs to be done), figuring out the full labor needs especially as it relates to immigration (still yet to be addressed comprehensively), and training and education pathways for the labor pool to be able to move manufacturing back to the forefront (still yet to be done).  The last four years got us a good start on this, but now who knows where we will go.  The last few weeks haven’t given us much hope that we will build on the needed work, rather the opposite.

All this to say, the analysis about CTR and the regulatory state here is built on a false premise and thus its conclusion is just wrong.  If we are having an honest conversations (which is what the author started with) you have to start with the full story, with all of the context, and looking at the full scale of what needs to be done. The author is right, tariffs alone won’t fix this (actually tariffs are a horrible way to address this need), but neither is it true that you can blame taxes or the regulatory state as the major contributors to our US domestic manufacturing problem.