Bully or Leader?

Published 11:46 am Thursday, December 6, 2012

I don’t know about everyone else, but I long for a real leader in our federal government.  Obama does not have a realistic concept of what it means to be a leader.  Leading implies gaining support or buy in from those that will be affected by a proposal.  Leading suggests setting a direction for a group, organization or country.

Obama understands that leadership and dictatorship are two entirely different processes.  Leadership works best if you can convince an individual or a group of individuals, to follow you.  This implies that you would have an idea to change or improve that would be shared with the group to gain support for ideas.  The goal should be to develop a desire to assist the leader with the implementation of those ideas.

Dictatorship suggests that given the authority, a person would make a decision and inflict it on a group without gaining agreement or support.  After you attempt to force a change, it becomes very difficult to lead.  This is a deficit that can be readily identified in our president, he does not have a single idea for change that is supported by the masses or by the legislative bodies.  Obama’s tax proposals do not have the support of either party.  He is blaming the Republican led House, but he doesn’t have solid support for his plans in the Senate which is controlled by the Democrats.

The true evidence that our President does not have the necessary qualities to lead becomes evident when he attempts to justify his failings by blaming others.  Obama seems determined to take our country as far into the debt swamp as possible.  He is not  negotiating, he his holding a financial gun to the heart of our country to enforce a philosophy that is totally contrary to the philosophies that have made out country great.

Our forefathers wrote the Constitution and structured our government to require consensus.  They distributed the power of government between its three branches and split the legislative branch into two separate houses.  If our government is to function, there must be a consensus, agreement and support developed between the three branches.  

The American people typically do not allow one party to control the executive and legislative branches.  We seem to like divided government. Divided government does not move quickly.  It is difficult to establish consensus when dealing with complex issues.  Divided government requires great political skill and leadership to successfully govern.  Obama’s substitute for leadership is a political baseball bat.  The president has many available tools to selectively punish his opponents, and he is using them.  When he punishes our elected legislators, he punishes the voters that elected them.  This is not the behavior of someone claiming to be the President of all American people.

Ed Tyler lives in Pell City. He may be reached at ed@edtylerinc.com