What passes for leadership today in government/politics....

Google “definition of ‘leadership’” or words to that effect and you’ll get a gozillion hits. There’s definitions that emphasize influence, people over things, social interaction yadayadayad. There seems like there’s as many definitions of ‘leadership’ as there are stars in the night sky.

But whatever definition of ‘leadership’ you ascribe to, I think you’ll agree that what passes for ‘leadership’ in our government officials – particularly those in the Republican Party – is pretty damn lame. That’s right! I said the Republican Party. The Democrat Party has been a cesspool of “liars, cheats and thieves” who say or do whatever’s convenient at the moment – situational ethics, they call it – but the Republicans have suffered a spinectomy since just after President George H.W. Bush kicked Saddam Hussein’s ass the first time. And, that as such, is a more recent development.

No, no; sadly, what passes for “leadership” isn’t even statesmanship. There hasn’t been “statesmanship” out of the Democrats since JFK forced Nikita Kruschev’s nuclear missiles out of Cuba in ’62. So, that’s nothing new. But the Republicans’ of recent haven’t been long on this quality either. The last time I saw it, President GW Bush was standing on a pile of “Ground Zero” rubble a week after 9-11-01 amid chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” and telling those in the audience that al-Qaeda was gonna be getting bombed very soon. And this deficiency in the GOP is another fairly recent development.

Dr. J. Rufus Fears, a college professor of “The History of Freedom” postulates that “a statesman…is not a tyrant; he is the free leader of a free people and he must possess four critical qualities:

1.      A bedrock of principles

2.      A moral compass

3.      A vision

4.      The ability to build a consensus to achieve that vision"*

Before going any further, Yes, yes; “consensus building” and even bipartisanship are both useful tools and necessary approaches to difficulties – but not as your standard operating practice. When something is screwed up, needs fixed or is flat out wrong, the true leader should say so.

Call me crazy, but the way I see it, “just getting along” with the opposition (i.e., Democrats) is not leading. Similarly, just rolling over for and ultimately allowing and/or voting for lamebrain, oppressive legislation that isn’t pro-America, pro-liberty or pro-economic development and defending it by claiming to be “bipartisan” isn’t either. And for damned sure acting like a whipped puppy each time the GOP has a majority in both houses of Congress isn’t leading, it’s wimping out.

Sadly, today’s definition of leadership in D.C. looks like this; Democrats playing the pied pipers while they march us all off the cliff. But so long as the Republicans are marching in lock step behind them (“in the back” behind Democrats as Obama put it in 2010**) and all getting along, today’s GOP ‘leadership’ – and I use the term loosely – the John Boehners and Mitch McConnells and all the other RINOs, “country club” Republicans and those just without the will and spirit to take the fight to them…well…today’s GOP ‘leadership’ is just fine and dandy with that.

What a joke. That’s not leadership in any way shape, size or form.

*McKay, B and Mckay, K. (30 Janu, 2012) The 4 Qualities of a True Statesman, The Art of Manliness, retrieved 4 June, 2015 from http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/01/30/the-4-qualities-of-a-true-statesman/

**Hall, C. (26 Oct, 2010) Obama to GOP: ‘They can come for the ride, but they have to sit in the back.” Mediaite, retrieved 4 June, 2015 from http://www.mediaite.com/tv/obama-to-gop-%E2%80%98they-can-come-for-the-ride-but-they-have-to-sit-in-back/