Not long ago my brother paid us a visit and during that time the discussion came up about our presidents. In that discussion he mentioned leadership, it was missing from our presidents. During this race with all the hoopla going on I got to thinking about presidential leadership.
Leadership to my mind and especially in regard to our president is a critical trait that I believe is solely missing and has been missing for a while now. When I think of leadership I think of the military. In my mind that means to be president I feel the candidate must have military experience.
Not just any military experience but the kind of experience we have seen in presidents past like John F. Kennedy. I don’t mean spending a minimal amount of time uder reserved status going through boot, then spending one weekend a month and a couple of weekends a year but a minimum of two years military time out in the bush working with your brothers and especially in this time experience in combat. No where else can you achieve a level of leadership where you and your brothers lives depend on the team and its leaders. In this zone when a leader fails, people die and that type of experience translates to a better presidential leader.
A leader is one who is respected, experienced and inspires not just one person, a group or a particular social or racial type but everyone regardless of race, creed, color, political affiliations or belief system. A true leader is such that all others, “Want to follow them; want to do what they feel is right and just and moral and best for everyone, not just a particular separate group personal emotional need. It is about us, as in U.S., because to lead and to follow means we put aside our individual needs for the needs of the many, the U. S.
Leadership is not about what one can get or to achieve some egoistic status driven personal goal, it is about leading everyone toward a better life and toward the achievement of goals for all of U.S.. So far I have not seen one candidate who fills this bill, not one.
We have lost our way and those who choose to sit in leadership labeled roles (I say labeled because although a leadership role those who take those seats in our times are not leaders) don’t lead, don’t inspire and are not leading us but achieving personal goals leaving U.S. as mere vehicles to self-gratifying economic and personal ego stroking goals.
I had hopes with President Obama but so far I have not seen anything that says, “Leader.” This is not just about leadership in the office of the President but also in other government leadership roles such as Congress and the Senate. I also see a drop in leadership in the Supreme Court but that one is harder to assess.
Our constitution is about these government agencies leading U.S. to what we once had, toward respect and admiration by the entire world. We have lost the worlds respect, they simply laugh at us and our mindless efforts toward individualism over U.S., as a team, a tribe, a clan as an U.S. over a ME and Others with others being less human then ME. We are turning into a ME tribe and as nature and history prove, a tribe that is individual over U.S. or united as one for a common purpose of, “Survival,” means like many great tribes of our past dooms us.
In closing, I believe to truly return to our greatness as a nation we must return to thinking about U.S. and putting individual emotional ego seeking instant gratifications aside and thinking how we as a unified U.S. can return to and gain back our own respect for ourselves as a nation and gain back our respect for our leaders then the world can once again respect and admire the U.S.. We can once again not only lead ourselves but lead, set the tone of leadership, the world. Instead of resisting U.S. they can look to us to inspire their own leadership and efforts to gain more and greater tribe like cohesive progress that embraces peace and respect for everyone regardless of race, creed, religion, and belief systems.
I still hope that we in the U.S. can see and return to a U.S. that leads all toward progress and prosper and enlightenment. In this election process I still cannot see anyone who will lead, follow or get the hell out of the way of those who will lead, inspire and change us back to the U.S.
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