We lack leadership in a significant way in this country. I offer up the example of the Keystone pipeline. Recently, the pipeline was killed by the President. Personally, I think that is probably a good thing. I am no fan of fracking or shale oil, or humongous pipelines through the heart of the country.
However, there are economic realities that mean sometimes, things I don't exactly like, are reasonable options that still must be explored. I don't think there are perfect answers to any issue we face. Perfect is not going to happen, and I have learned to live with that.
Leadership is addressing issues in others they cannot see, while still caring more about them than the issue. My own definition, and I did not require a doctoral thesis to generate it. In times past, we had political LEADERS. We had people in positions that dealt with the issues of their peers, while still caring about their peers.
This allowed them to actually consider one another as worthwhile people. It allowed them to genuinely disagree, without being mortal enemies. This allowed leadership to crack the code that passed entitlement reforms, brought about surplus income, built this nation into what it has been most wonderful at, winning. Leaders were necessary, and we found them, elected them and benefited from their work.
Looking across the spectrum today, the thing that is most evident to me is that our entire sea of remaining candidates, with a couple of possible exceptions, are not leaders. At least in my definition, a leader is not motivated by issues, a leader is motivated by people that have issues. There is a huge difference there. And, being motivated by your own issues is not leadership, sorry the Donald.
I don't have much to say that is good about the candidates, generally. Unfortunately, they are like me, flawed and imperfect and quite human. Since we have the collective delusion we are chasing a "perfect" candidate, we are bound to be disappointed. We then act completely shocked when we do not get exactly what we expected out of that human being.
Chris Christie, actually, made a lot sense this week, talking about watching his mother struggle with addiction to nicotine, and the effort, unending effort that went into curing her lung cancer. But, when a person is addicted to heroin, they are punished and not treated. In both cases it is their own choice, it is wrong from a health standpoint, and the results are catastrophic for your health. But, we can only muster up incarceration for the one condition, while we will move heaven and earth and spend any amount of money for the other. That is an example of framing an issue from a standpoint of leadership.
You have to point out and address the issue the person has, but you have to care more about the person than the issue. We don't find that attitude and communication in many of the other campaigns. Bernie wants to give everything away. Hillary wants to tell you whatever you want to hear. Trump has delusional opinions of his capability, an egotist cannot be an effective leader. Carson, man, I just don't even know what to say there, I can't tell if he is a stoner or has some kind of social disorder.
I am not certain I would vote for Christie, but I am sure I will not vote for the other 4. There is no evidence of leadership there that I can find. This race is increasingly a drama of egotists, not a battle of visions of leadership. That is to all of our detriment. Think about who you are willing to follow, even when it gets dark, hard and scary. Not about who wants to give you more. Leadership does involve giving, vision, integrity, value. It is not about gifts. Leadership is about outcome, not ideology.
We have to decide what is important to us, stuff or outcome. If you want stuff, there are at least 14 candidates all equally ill prepared and incapable. Take your pick. If you want outcome and leadership, the pickings get a lot more thin. It should be worth at least thinking about. We have had 16 years in a row without leadership. That translates to deficits, wars, attacks and all the other maladies we suffer. They are not coincidences. It was about our choice.
Just my opinion, but it is informed by an entire life spent being expected to provide leadership. I am not able to give a genuine analysis of how successful I am personally, I am biased. However, I am able to provide guidance as to what it looks like, what it entails and why it is important.
GLYASDI
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