“In the real world, this level of ineptitude and abuses of fringe benefits would lead to certain dismissal. Yet in politics it is to be lauded and praised.”
Many years ago, when I was a company commander, I had a conversation with an incredibly astute NCO on leadership. He told me in no uncertain terms that he would never want to be an officer because of how little control you have over your own career. As an officer, especially one in command, you are responsible for everything that happens under your command, even things that you have no way to direct.
You are expected to wield enough influence over your unit that they are compelled to do the right thing, even when outside of visual contact. When that fails to happen, you, as the commander, end up paying the price for their failures. The cards you are dealt do not matter, only the way you play your hand. Because of this, command is one of the most stressful, and ultimately most rewarding, times in an officer’s career.
During that same period, I learned another powerful lesson in leadership from the Company First Sergeant. I had only been in command for a couple of days and was getting ready to brief my brigade commander. Before we went into the conference room, he looked at me and said, “Sir, no matter what, our soldiers have never done anything wrong. Any failures were our failures as leaders, not theirs. We failed to make them meet those expectations, and we will deal with them at our level.” That lesson hit hard, although not quite as hard as the brigade commander. He was correct; that really is the point of leadership.
When one accepts the mantle of leadership, they take all responsibility for the failure of their team. To do anything else means that they were never really in charge. Sometimes leadership expectations are not fair. Sometimes it is virtually impossible to meet the requirements that have been put upon the shoulders of those in charge. However, that is simply the price that must be paid for accepting such positions.
These are lessons that Mitch McConnell needs to learn. McConnell, the Senate majority leader for that last two and a half years, recently lamented that the president has been putting too much pressure on Congress to actually accomplish what it promised. “Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before, and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the Democratic process.”
McConnell is in fact correct. The president is not used to the incompetency in leadership that makes up Washington. In the real world, this level of ineptitude and abuses of fringe benefits would lead to certain dismissal. Yet in politics it is to be lauded and praised, apparently.
A leader does not simply wait and react to their environment, they anticipate and prepare. This is what allows an organization to quickly adjust to the unexpected, because a good leader has prepared their unit for that contingency. McConnell had years to prepare the Senate for a Republican leader. He had years to develop the Senate version of the bills the Republican party ran upon.
Only a man with no leadership ability would come up with such a pathetic excuse for their lack of ability to motivate their party
I am not in any way attempting to oversimplify the complexity of any issue the Congress of the United States needs to deal with, I simply don’t care. Let me explain. Our elected officials ran for their positions and accepted the responsibility for the offices they swore into. It is literally part of the oath they take before officially taking the position “that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.”
In doing so they made a promise to us, their constituents, that they would be responsible for fulfilling their responsibilities. I don’t care if it is hard to do. I don’t care if they are going to hurt people’s feelings. I don’t even care if they lose the next election. If our representatives cannot fulfill their oath in discharging their duties, then they have an obligation to resign from their position.
For McConnell, however, the bar is set much higher simply by the fact that he ran for, and accepted, the mantle of leadership. The fact that the Senate has failed to make any meaningful movement in their promises falls solely upon his shoulders. In talking about Obamacare, McConnell stated,
“What I am asking of you is to judge this Congress when it finishes, how much have we done to make America competitive again and to grow again. Our constituents have suffered through an awful lot under Obamacare. We thought they deserved better. It’s why I and many of my colleagues did as we promised and voted to repeal this failed law.”
Only a man with no leadership ability would come up with such a pathetic excuse for their lack of ability to motivate their party.
Typical of the Republican party—we were promised leadership only to be given cowardice and slothfulness.
McConnell was not made leader of the Senate for his ability to vote with many of his colleagues. He was voted to that position in order to get results. What tangible results has this Republican-controlled government really made? Minus the president, who has enacted numerous executive orders, the most notable thing Congress has accomplished is S. 1094 – Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017.
What happened to all of the promises that were made to us, the voters? How is it possible that our leaders in Congress had no replacement plan for Obamacare on the day Trump was sworn in? What about the defunding of Planned Parenthood? I still have not seen anything on a National Reciprocity Law.
I cringe at the thought of what is going to happen next month when we start working on the budget for next year. At this point, I must assume that tax reform is pretty much a dead issue as well. Typical of the Republican party—we were promised leadership only to be given cowardice and slothfulness.
Whether McConnell is incompetent or simply weak beyond words does not affect the end result. He is a failure and therefore simply cannot be allowed to remain in his position. I would hope that he would look at his track record of letdowns and walk away. I am sure that this will not happen. I would be equally happy with the party rising up in arms against him and actually placing someone into position who can rally the party. I simply do not believe that the party has the intestinal fortitude to accomplish this.
We the people need to start forcing our government to bend to our will. We need to elect actual conservatives into Congress and stop electing those who are simply suckling at the government welfare teat, self-assured in their ability to stay in office. Until we do so, we are going to need to accept and embrace this level of ineffectiveness.
Ayn Rand, author from the early 20th century, was quoted as saying, “We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.”
This is why the Republicans were elected—to stop this progression of government overreach. McConnell has ensured the failure of that objective.
