Here's the problem: bullying has replaced leadership in our Executive and Legislative Branches, and I don't mean just recently. Did it start with LBJ? I'm not a historian, though you can pick out points during our history where leadership was not to be found. A good book on the Great Depression, "The Forgotten Man" by Amity Schlaes, is a great read. The first 20 pages of the intro are chilling...just change a couple of names, and you could relate to Clinton, Obama, anyone you care to name.
My definition of leadership goes back to the Platoon Leaders Handbook: a leader is responsible for everything his unit does or fails to do.
My 15 YO son has heard that definition ad nauseum since February, when he was elected Senior Patrol Leader of his Boy Scout troop. There was no sympathy from me: he ran for that position, just like anyone running for office. When he complains about the 40+ new scouts in the troop, I tell him it's his job to show them the right way to do it, as well as training his six patrol leaders to be effective.
I'm not perfect, but it rankles me when I hear Trump, McConnell, Ryan, et al make excuses for not performing in the manner we expect them to. IMO McConnell is the worst, he flat out lied to us in 2014 and 2016. He never intended to repeal Obamacare, and lied through his teeth.
Cruz had him pegged.
But in DC, it is a very different climate from elsewhere. I have been in a lot of situations where the boss, the leader, the ranking officer (Fire Dept, not military) was the one who was responsible for what happened. Same on an oil rig. The Company Hand is the one who calls the shots, and with that comes the responsibility for everything that happens on his location.
Not so in the DC Culture of burning subordinates to pull your bacon out of the fire. None of these people is ever the one who claims nonperformance when they go back to their district, it's always someone else's fault.That's one of the reasons I would love to have a roll call vote on ACA repeal.
