Leadership

Voters deserve leaders. No one will disagree with that point. I do disagree with that statement. Voters deserve the leaders that we are willing to demand.

In the nineties I was very much in favor of term limits. I still am in principle. I have changed however in the aspect that we have the capacity to limit the power of politicians today. We don't have to re-elect them. We have to demand leadership though.

Robert Byrd exists to take government money to West Virginia. This man is a former Ku Klux Klan member. Republicans have their own embarrassment. Duke Cunningham is going to jail. The charges against Tom Delay may or may not be trumped up, but the leadership of the party seems to be showing more and more signs of favoring power over doing the right thing.

We say we believe in markets. Somehow that doesn't translate to ideas in politics. Why is this?

1. Established power. Power is established in two political parties. Broad coalitions make up our system. Fear of losing power leads politicians to not lead. Too many times populist ideas pass for representation. Unpopular ideas that might be the best thing for the country are avoided.

2. Sound bite society. Like it or not we live in a sound bite world. Many times a politician only gets 30 seconds to make a point. This does not allow him or her to communicate great visions. This is unfortunate, but should not be a limiting factor. Vision usually takes a back seat to populism because politicians believe that is what gets them elected.

3. Counter intuitive ideas are hard to explain. This doesn't mean they aren't correct. It is counter-intuitive that tax cuts produce higher revenue. It is counter-intuitive that eliminating capital gains taxes would increase tax revenue. It is counter-intuitive (to liberals) that allowing free speech, truly free speech on campuses would create an environment where less hatred exists. All these things are true, at least true enough to create discussion. True leaders accept these discussions. Politicians run from passionate discussions.

How do we reverse this? It is not easy and will take tough action from our electorate. We have to decide if it is worth it.