SAN DIEGO–Perplexed, upset and maybe even angry over the current state of politics and dialogue in the United States right now? You can relax, reassures one person: the country has been here before and emerged in a better place.
“As anyone who grew up during the 1960s knows, we’ve been through the cycles of changes before,” said Bob Arnould, SVP-advocacy with the California and Nevada leagues, in remarks to the NASCUS State Summit here. “We are in the part of the cycle where there is a lot of arguing and name calling. Eventually, we will get to the part of the cycle where we start arriving at solutions. And it won’t be the 1% on the far right or 1% on the far left who bring about those solutions. Solutions will come from the 80% in the middle.”
Arnould, who once served for two decades in the Iowa legislature before moving to California, observed that there are “big parts of America that absorb changes at slower pace than others,” which was evident during the 2016 elections.
“We are at one of those junctures right now. And it doesn’t need to scare the United States. We need to get past the ‘My dad can beat up your dad,’ and ‘God is on my side and the devil is on your side.’ We need to realize that we can make progress on all the changes together, and we just need to get past this crazy, angry stage first. And we will.”
Arnould said a contributor to the current divide in the United States is that technology has reduced the “shared experiences” many Americans used to have.
“We don’t all watch Happy Days and then talk about it the next day at the office anymore,” said Arnould.
As an industry seeking to not just survive but prosper in the current environment, Arnould said credit unions can’t rest, but they also don’t need to panic.
“We as credit unions all share a very important common heritage,” said Arnould. “We are part of a financial services experiment that worked much better than anyone very expected, that is changing the lives of 100 million Americans for the better every day. It’s probably the most trusted generic industry in the U.S.
“Because we live in this rapidly changing world, CUs will be morphing rapidly, even faster than last five to 10 years, and the challenge is how do we keep them safe and sound without (limiting) the forces of change,” he continued. “Our jobs are always going to be about striking that balance.”