If you’re a US citizen, or even a citizen of another country that is concerned about the world’s economies, you may have noticed that Washington, DC is a total mess.
I watch lots of news programs and read lots of new publications everyday. It makes no difference if it’s the “far left liberal” media, the “fair and balanced” bunch or the “far right conservatives”, they all have two things in common: they have a point of view to get across and they hardly ever tell us what’s really going on.
The gridlock in Washington is not caused by a difference of opinion. It’s not caused by opposing viewpoints. Differences of opinion and viewpoints are not only healthy, they are in fact a necessary ingredient of good decision making. It’s not caused by uninformed or uneducated people, I think the people that are sent to Washington are by and large, some very smart people.
The gridlock in Washington is caused by a lack of leadership, or more accurately, some very poor leadership. You can’t really blame one party over the other, there is so little decent leadership that there is plenty of blame to go around.
So why is it that these “leaders” don’t lead? Well, I have a few ideas on that!
First, and this is by far the biggest problem, they put their wants and needs above the wants and needs of the people (and country) that they are supposed to be leading. They have somehow gotten into their heads that their leading is about them. They are about as far away from the “servant leader” model as someone in a leadership position could be. Their “win at all costs” mentality hurts everyone that they are supposed to serve. Make no mistake, the havoc caused by the poor leadership in Washington is affecting everyone, no Republican or Democrat will be spared from this near total lack of leadership.
Second, they have completely forgotten whose money they are spending. A tax refund is not the government giving us some of their money, it is the government returning to us some of our money. The talk in Washington about giving us more money to spend by reducing our taxes is laughable.
Third, and perhaps the most maddening, they have completely forgotten who they work for. In case you have forgotten as well, let me remind you. The people WE send to Washington, DC to conduct the nation’s business on our behalf work for US. Imagine what would happen to you if your job required that you develop and implement a budget on an annual basis and you failed to do that for years. I know you probably can’t imagine a scenario like that because it would never happen, it couldn’t happen because you would have been fired after the first year.
These elected individuals in Washington, DC should at least have the decency to return their paychecks to the Federal Reserve. They didn’t earn it and I see no reason that they should keep it.
Almost all of them got themselves elected by talking about going to Washington to lead. That being the case we need to make sure we don’t dump all the blame on John or Harry or Nancy or even just Barack. They all claimed the mantle of leadership when they were running for office so they should all except their share of the responsibility.
So… call or write the “leader” that works for you and tell them to either start leading or get the heck out of the way and give someone else a chance. Remind them that it’s your money they are talking about, that they work for you and that it’s your wants and needs they should be considering.
We the People of the United States of America can no longer afford their poor, no vision, no compromise, no caring, no direction, no future, leadership. If they can’t lead then they need to go and go now!
Another good post, Steve. Sounds like we have similar thoughts along the same lines when it comes to our national leadership issues.
You’ve brought up a few great points in the same vein as I did last week in my own post. Although I’ve been reluctant to publicly write about them, I strongly feel the issues are so much deeper then what the both of us have touched on here. Part of the reluctance is in not having been able to come up with a solution on my own. However, by not writing about them, I leave out the ideas of others that can help in the exploration phase that can lead to solutions.
That said, I wholeheartedly feel we need to consider a complete revamp of our election process from the ground up. As it stands now, it takes a TON of money to be a candidate. I don’t know of too many candidates that were wealthy enough to fund their own campaigns so that leaves people open to needing financial backing and support from others. Some of my questions have revolved around WHO provides the financial support to each candidate. And specifically WHAT strings are attached? Do they have specific political agendas of their own that get attached to the candidate if they receive money? etc etc.
So even if someone has the very best of intentions going IN to the presidency, how much is their good intentions compromised by those financial backers? This can greatly interfere with integrity from the outset.
In addition to that, I question the value of separate parties: democrat and republican. The masses get WAY too caught up in the labels and miss the whole point at times. And I’m sure you are quite familiar with ‘a house divided cannot stand’….and it doesn’t. It’s a MESS!
Also, I urge everyone to dig a little deeper to explore the power of an individual vote in this country in comparison to electoral votes. I don’t have the cold, hard facts…just reading on my own on the internet, yet what I have found has caused me to wonder about this. If the electoral vote has more power then the individual votes of the people, then WHAT is the point of our so-called democratic process?
Do ‘we the people’ truly HAVE a choice? Or are we just made to ‘think’ we do?
Definitely something to think about…..
Again, I don’t have the answers. However, these have been some of my questions that I’ve been wondering about for quite awhile.
Thanks again for sharing your own thoughts Steve.
~Samantha
You do have to kind of wonder about the choice issue. “we the people” as a whole are mostly uninformed and influenced by sound bites and snazzy TV advertisements. It’s kind of like we can be bought…. although we would never admit to it.
It’s just too bad that those with the audacity to call themselves a leader don’t have the courage to actually lead.
Yes, in many ways we’ve been ‘bought’ although I’m not so sure the dilemma lies so much in not being able to admit it, but in not even knowing it. From the time we arrive, we are told what to think, what to do, how to behave. We trust those who tell us without question. Although this is perfectly natural, it also sets us up to make it difficult to question things that DO need to be questioned.
Have you ever seen the movie, The American President? I realize it’s ‘just’ a movie, however, there were some priceless, thought-provoking gems scattered throughout. For example, there is a scene with the President (Michael Douglas ) and his many advisers where the President was being forced to make a decision. Do the right thing, or bury an important bill in order to satisfy the right people, earn enough votes, and win the upcoming election.
In one part of the scene, Michael J. Fox says this to the President:
“I’m a citizen. This is my President. And in this country, it is not only permissible to question our leaders, it’s our responsibility.”
I wholeheartedly agree. If we are questioned for ‘questioning’, then we are not truly FREE.
In the latter part of the same scene, here is the dialog between Michael J. Fox and the President (Michael Douglas)
(M.J.Fox) ‘The America People want leadership. And in the absence of genuine leadership, they will listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They’re so thirsty for it, they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.’
(President) ‘We’ve had Presidents who were beloved, who couldn’t find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don’t drink the sand, because they’re thirsty. They drink it because they don’t know the difference.’
I want to know the difference.
Good post, Steve. Although not directed at me (I am a Brit) I admire the revolutionary zeal that you express so freely. Your entitlement to Freedom of Speech and Thought is demonstrated.
I refer you to a British historian, Lord Acton (1834 – 1902) and I quote;
‘Liberty is the condition of duty, the guardian of conscience. It grows as conscience grows.The domains of both grow together. Liberty is safety from all hindrances, even sin. So that :Liberty ends by being Free Will.’
In giving your opinion here you are intrinsically putting a slant on your writing. It is almost impossible to report something without an agenda.
Also who’s = whose.
I most certainly have an agenda…. I would like the people running around in Washington, DC shouting about being a leader and telling everyone we need leadership to LEAD. That’s what they were hired for. I do not apologize for that agenda and I do not apologize for expressing an opinion.