MORE ABOUT LEADERSHIP
Leadership is all about getting the job done correctly. I don’t care if you are a CEO, President, a very senior officer (or for that matter a very junior one) in the military. There is a task, a mission a goal to be achieved and good leaders accomplish the task or mission or achieve the goal espoused.
Say it another way. Good leadership means “put up or shut up” in any circumstance, even for criminals that look too good leaders to tell them how to rob a bank and not get caught. Hollywood ia full of those stories and so in history. Good leaders MAKE good things happen and that is the ultimate test of leadership, making good things happen, regardless of who or what stands in your way.
Lenin was a fantastic leader. He struggled his whole life to make communism a reality. In that sense he was a spectacular leader. But a great leader, no way in my book simply because he lead a nation to the wrong goals and they paid dearly for such leadership and “followership” behind that chosen leader.
History is replete with examples of leaders. But the really great leaders that advanced the cause of civilization, you can count only a few in my view. While his goals were wonderful, even Christ does not fall into the category of great leadership in my view. We still do not have “peace on earth, good will towards all men”.
Which of course leads me to my critique of last night’s SOTU address by a failing leader, President Obama. As I commented on the EC blog such a speech makes me sad as an American. I do not want to see any President fail. That means we the people fail no matter for whom we voted. We are all in the same boat, like it or not.
Consider failure in military leadership in WWI that resulted in the slaughter of millions of men in the trenches. Traditional tactics were to form an attacking force at least twice in size of the defending forces and then attack with “brute” force. Overwhelm the opponent with sheer numbers. It worked for centuries and a lot of generals won battles and wars using such tactics and leadership. “Buck it up guys, we have the strength, now over the top and get the SOBs”
Well it failed time and time again, because of technology, specifically the machine gun, which could kill at ten or twenty times the rate of a tradition soldier. And the war was ultimately won, not because of spectacular leadership. Rather once the U. S. entered the war, no way could Germany match our manpower or output of machine guns as well. Brute force won that war, American brute force, not leadership.
Not so in WWII but I will not give you a military history lesson in technology or tactics. Brute force was part of our success in WWII but not the ultimate success. Ike, Patton, Nimitz, Halsey, even MacArthur were great tacticians and in some cases strategists. Ideas from such men won WWII, along with the Ideas of the Manhattan Project as well, call it technology from ideas if you like.
I saw a failing President last night as I listened intently for SOMETHING that I could support, politically. Yet I heard NOTHING other than rhetoric, which anyone can support. “I demand fairness”!!! Well no s…, Sherlock. We all want fairness or equality before the law for sure. But fairness is NOT achieve by TAKING, using the force of government (or Robin Hood for that matter), from some and giving to others, chosen by government (or Robin Hood).
How about this for fairness. Every person in America pays the exact same percentage of their income, all income, to the federal government to pay for the services provided by that government. Do rich people and poor people need the same defenses against our overseas enemies? I did not see Al Qaeda target only rich people on 9/11.
Do rich people use roads and bridges more than do the poor or middle class? Not that I can see as I drive anywhere. So everyone belly up to the bar and pay the same percentage of income, secretaries, bosses, workers, CEOs, you name it to pay for OUR government.
Who really cares whether your money (income) comes from capital gains, wages, criminal actions or whatever. You receive money to “earn your living”. OK, now pay a percentage so we can ALL go about earning our living under the protective umbrella of a federal government that holds foreign enemies at bay and prevents anarchy within our borders. Sounds great to me. We all pay our “fair share” as a percentage of what we make to OUR federal government, not just a government for slices of America.
And that “fair share” comes right off the top of total income, regardless of where the income comes from. If you get money for food stamps then pay your fair share back to the government for giving you the food stamps. If you get money from capital gains, pay your fair share of such income and it should be no more or less than what you pay as a percentage of your wages. Secretaries, bosses, everyone pays a fair share of all income with NO deductions, to fund the federal government.
The “progressivity” of such a form of taxation is determined ONLY by how much income you receive. Obviously the rich pay far more in total dollars than do the poor, but all pay something, to support our country.
But Democrats do not want such a form of federal income taxation. Nope, they want to redistribute income across the board in America to be “fair”. I suppose the ultimate goal is for EVERYONE to receive an equal share of our GDP, about $14 Trillion last year. So doing the math that means everyone would receive $14 Trillion divided by 308 million people or about $45,000 dollars a year for every man, woman and child in America in 2011.
WOW, my family of four gets almost $200,000 in 2011. Man oh man can I and my family live like kings on such an income. And all those millionaires have to live just like me as well.
THAT is what the President, in so many words, is calling for in his call for fairness. The only problem is our GDP will soon go down to that of Somalia if we do so. We remove the incentive to work hard and succeed by such a call for “fairness”. Success in life is competition for resources, just like success in football is competition against other good football players. Everyone gets a salary that can MAKE THE TEAM, but only superstars that win get the big salaries. Is that “fair”?
I guess not so let’s reform how we pay football players through the force of government. I bet NO ONE will watch the Super Bowl in such a case.
Americans LOVE winners and all Americans want to be winners. That is traditional America in my view. And good, traditional Americans hate to be on the “dole” or receive welfare. I know a bunch of people like that from my childhood and I know them right here in Joplin today.
I also know people that HAVE to receive welfare to “get back on their feet”. Fine. Pay it to them and let them get back on their feet. But continuing to pay them while they sit on their butts, no way.
Well, they say, “I cannot find a job and therefore…..” Baloney. Take a walk with me sister or brother and I will FIND you a job in about a day or so. You may not LIKE the job, but a job with a pay check it in fact will be.
Bu the job will not allow me to keep my house, my car, my big screen TV, etc. and thus why should I work at such wages. Well, go find a house, car or TV that you can afford or give up one or the other in the meantime until you get back on your feet.
But then I won’t be able to get to work without a car or be homeless without a house. Baloney again. Rent a bicycle to get to work and if you must, live in Souls Harbor until you get your first pay check, then go rent a home for you and your family. Let’s see, minimum wage is $7.50 per hour times 40 hours a week in dollars per week, less 6.2% ($18 per week) gives you $282 per week or $1182 a month.
People can actually live on such an income. Maybe not the way they WANT to live, but live, they can, at least in Joplin. Get two people working, Mom and Dad, in the household and just think. Over $2000 a month after taxes to live.
But that is not “FAIR” according to the President. Many Americans disagree. So he sends his troops storming the trenches of the GOP, a la WWI, and cannot achieve a victory. Well whose fault is that, the GOP or the leader that keeps doing the same old thing and failing every time?
Well folks, that is what I heard last night in the SOTU address, a “general” sending forth his troops en masse, so to speak, to be gunned down by opposing machine guns just as before. THAT in my view is terrible leadership, on a battle field on in political combat which is almost the same thing.
AT LEAST, Mr. President, don’t tell your followers to continue to “storm the trenches of the opposition” and hope that brute force will prevail.
Instead, get smart, devise a “flanking maneuver” or “something” to defeat you sworn enemy, the GOP. But as many Union Commanders found, failed Union Commanders, there is a very smart opposing general, whose NAME is not yet known, but whose tactics and strategy are already well known, that, like with Jackson at Fredredesburg found a dirt road in the wilderness to outflank you.
OK you say, we still won the war. Yep a great leader, Lincoln, won the war. Are you up to HIS caliber? No way, President Obama. A Lincoln you are NOT. Even your quote from him last night showed how shallow you really are.
Even if I thought you policies were the best for America, which I of course do not believe, I STILLL would not vote for you because of your FAILURE TO ACHIEVE YOUR POLICIES. That Mr. President is simply a failure of LEADERSHIP, and I hold you in low regard for such, despite all your rhetoric.
