James D. Winslow

Holiday get-togethers in Washington often include an eclectic mix of people from all across the political spectrum. Last weekend, my wife and I hosted a dinner with friends that included a high-ranking official from the Bush and Trump administrations, an immigration attorney, a Montgomery County Maryland elementary school principal, and the commanding police officer of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. As you might suspect, political opinions were all over the map…

Next week begins SCOA’s Americas Week, and I’ll be appearing on a panel about “Enriching Lives Through Volunteerism” on Thursday; I hope you’ll be able to join. While many of us volunteer in our daily lives, more and more companies, including SCOA, support volunteerism as well as engage in their own Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) endeavors.

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was good. The general talk around the table was about how the kids are doing, playoff prospects for the Ravens and Commanders, and any upcoming anniversary, Christmas, or Hanukkah plans. We largely veered away from politics, and had all the normal conversations most families do…except for one. I suspect a discussion about modern-day, neo-Malthusians entered very few, if any, family conservations last Thursday.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. For me, that’s Thanksgiving. I love getting together with family without the focus being on presents; I love the food; and I love the football.

When was the last time you sat down inside a McDonalds; went to the mall to shop; or wrote a series of checks to pay your monthly bills? I get it; we all use the drive-through or delivery apps, Amazon, and online banking. We live in a society of convenience—the convenience to eat on the go, to skip the hunt for a parking spot, to avoid stuffing an envelope and finding a stamp. Truth be told, I even voted by mail this year, way back sometime in October.

With just a few days to go before Election Day, you’ll still see polls that list a significant number of voters as “Undecided.” Following a months-long campaign, candidate debates, and wall-to-wall commercials, you can’t be blamed for asking yourself, “How this is even possible; who are these people?”

Turn on any cable news network, listen to any talk radio station, attend any think tank briefing, and what you get is wall-to-wall coverage of this year’s midterm election horse race. While we’ve all heard what the break down might be between Republicans and Democrats in House, Senate, and even Gubernatorial races, little, if any, attention has been devoted to the potential consequences of the election’s outcome.

In the comedy classic, Caddyshack, there is a scene where Judge Smails (Ted Knight) finds out that Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) does not keep score on the golf course. The Judge asks Ty, “Well, how do you measure yourself with other golfers?” Webb’s deadpan response is, “By height.” Although there may be a certain degree of futility in comparing oneself to other golfers, the same cannot be said of corporations, which constantly measure themselves against peers and competitors.

We’ve all played the children’s game “telephone,” or “dengon” in Japan. The game starts when a difficult word or phrase is whispered into the ear of the next person in line; this person whispers whatever he/she heard to the next person; and the game continues until the last person in line receives the phrase.

This week I had lunch with a Washington-based government affairs colleague from another Japanese subsidiary. It was great to catch up with him in person for the first time since Covid, and we discussed family, vacations, and the NFL. Knowing that his daughter works for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and that we both work in public policy, as expected, the discussion ultimately turned to politics and the upcoming elections.