I enjoy the art of debate. Tell me why you think what you think. I’ll tell you why I think what I think. Not always, but usually, when I’ve found someone who has the same starting point, we will agree. Not on everything, not even on most things. But on some things. There are points I will make that will resonate with my counterpointed individual, and points that he or she will make that make sense to me.
But cowardly leaders know no reason.
As long as two or more logical, rational people start from a place of reason, and not emotion, some agreement and understanding of the other position usually is an end result.
This is what happened during the debates of the Continental Congress. Even during the founding period of our country- when we had no idea if we would even have a country yet-representatives were debating fiercely on issues as important and divisive as states rights, the banking system, slavery, the separation of powers, and others that we continue to debate today. But after the debates, everyone signed the Declaration of Independence.
I don’t think that would happen today. I think whoever lost the debate would walk out.
That’s what cowardly leaders do. They draw a line in the sand, then walk out. Because their position, their emotional line in the sand, is more important than the good of the whole.
Cowardly leaders and the absence of logic
If you have been reading my posts for any length of time, you know that I intentionally shy away from national politics. Cowardly Leadership-Up Close and Personal is about cowardly leadership at the local level of politics. Those inept, inaccurate, misleading, cowards who say whatever it takes to get elected- then do the opposite. Or, just as head-shaking- do nothing at all.
Cowardly Leaders have no reason to reason (see what I did there???). Logic is ineffectual.
If they were elected officials, they default to “I was elected, therefore I get to call the shots.” The campaign rhetoric, and the “let’s work together” ad campaigns are all forgotten. The promises that were made to individuals to help them get elected are ignored.
Reason and logic have no place in the cowardly leader’s agenda. What is fiery, what panders to the base, and what generates financing from lobbyists and corporate CEOs has ultimate priority.
As Thomas Paine said, we might as well be administering medicine to the dead. My mother, who had a large basketfull of quotes at the ready, liked to say, “I might as well be talking to a wall.”
What were once vices, are now habits
I am a Senator John McCain fan. I always have been, even since he ran for President in the primaries against George W Bush in 1999-2000. One reason I like him is because he was always willing to work “across the aisle” to try and find common ground with Democrats. He is what I define a true Statesman to be- someone who puts the country ahead of the party. Someone who tries to find areas of agreement. For 200 years, most of the citizens of this country have expected that from their elected leaders.
Furthermore, it seems that elected officials for every office still use that campaign rhetoric: “I want to find common ground.” “Unlike my opponent, I will find ways to work with the other side.” “Until we elect people like myself who know how to work across the aisle and find ways to agree, we will never get better- that’s why you should vote for me.”
Yet, after the election, even talking to the other side is seen as treasonous.
Almost everyone has read stories of Tip O’Neill, who was the Democratic Speaker of the House, and Republican President Ronald Reagan having drinks together at the end of the day. They both knew the country was more important than either party.
We don’t see that anymore. Now, I read comments that call Senator McCain a “traitor.” Each one I have read has been from a self-proclaimed conservative. I’ve never heard a Democrat call Senator McCain a traitor.
Hypocrites
Cowardly leaders are hypocrites. They ignore reason, and logic, and facts. They substitute bombast and double standards.
If you think Oprah Winfrey is qualified to run for President, then you cannot have complained about Donald Trump being unqualified.
If you think Donald Trump, by virtue of being a political outsider and billionaire business person, was qualified to run for President, you cannot say that Oprah Winfrey is unqualified.
Logic and reason are as simple as that. It would be energizing if our upcoming political debates used those two bedrock fundamentals as starting points.
But I’m not holding my breath.
III-4
