Opinion: Powell was a soaring star until he got trapped
Yet, like many prominent leaders, Powell also learned you can’t escape the weight of history when you are tied to the problematic legacy of a president you served.
Regardless of the contributions and record of an individual, being at the center of disastrous decisions for the nation forever shapes the way that person will be remembered. And this is true of Powell.
Raised by Jamaican immigrant parents in the South Bronx, he graduated from City College of New York. Powell was a star in the post-Vietnam military, blazing a trail for Black leaders (military and otherwise) in Washington.
What the public did not know was the intelligence used was faulty and the case for war extremely slim. But it worked to lay the groundwork for the US invasion of Iraq. Soon after, the nation entered a war that would last until 2011.
It also hurt the Republican Party. As the pace of radicalization was accelerating within the GOP, as most leaders came to embrace a rightward policy agenda and destructive approach to partisan politics, one of the most influential voices pushing against these currents had fallen from grace.
Powell nonetheless remained a voice of reason in the political sphere. He still urged his party to deal with climate change, to endorse gun controls and abortion rights, to support immigrants and policies that helped achieve racial equality. He respected the traditional processes of governance, including relying on talented expertise, and believed the US had to work with its allies.
As his party veered further to the right, Powell started to come out in favor of Democrats. In 2008, he endorsed Barack Obama for president over John McCain. More recently, in 2020, he said he was voting for Joe Biden because Trump had “drifted away” from the Constitution.
Powell’s fate is not unlike others in the GOP who wanted to project a more centrist vision for the party, one which championed more limited government and a reliance on the market, without gutting the social safety net and embracing the world of White reactionary politics.
He was a conservative who still believed Washington mattered and the processes of government—the basic rules of the game—were important so reasoned decisions could be made.
The tragedy of Powell is he was one of the few figures in American politics with the kind of gravitas and political standing that might have really made a difference to the trajectory of history. As a Black American with an extraordinarily distinguished record in the military as well as in the executive branch, he really did have the potential to win at the highest levels of power.
But at a key moment, he went all in with an administration using disinformation to sell an unnecessary war, one that would have huge human and budgetary costs as well as weaken our nation’s standing overseas. Powell’s testimony was a massive misstep which had huge ramifications for the Republican Party—as well as our democracy.
In the past 20 years, though, he did much to speak out on behalf of America’s democratic values — and did his nation and his former party a service.
