Observations on political leadership in the age of Corona

For the life of me, I cannot understand why people are so disappointed by the quality of political leadership during this plague.

Let’s look at what leaders need to do in order to get elected. They need to distort the truth, promise things and renege, divide and conquer, please as many people as often as possible , explain away complexities and compromise core beliefs in order to build as wide a power base as possible. None of these skills are in any way relevant to the challenges of coping with Corona.

How do elected politicians communicate? They hammer home simplistic messages and sloganize; they work with professionals who wordsmith away obstacles, stepsidding controversy when needed and create controversy out of non issues. But dealing with Corona presents challenges that are hard to comprehend, involve balancing between complex forces and present  issues that are very hard to communicate.

What drives politicians? Being elected again. Dominating palace intrigue. Pleasing people with populistic garbage. Once again-not all that relevant to coping effectively with corona.

I don’t understand why people expect Trump to tell them to wear a mask. Trump wants to be get reelected, that’s all. And he assumes that telling people to wear masks will not serve his purpose. So why the disappointment? Who are the dumb ones-the leader or the disappointed?

There are very few political leaders who care anything else except for the skin on their own asses. And the sooner that people realize it, the healthier we will all stay. Get smart and take care of yourselves.

 

 

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3 thoughts on “Observations on political leadership in the age of Corona

  1. The bad news is that this is bound up with human nature and has been going on for 100,000 years. Looked at another way, as Churchill put it, “the greatest argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.” And that was true for Athens Greece and still true for Athens Georgia.

  2. I have said for decades that to be elected to anything beyond local office in the U.S. requires the support & backing of 1 of the major parties. To get that support, you have to end up owing so many people so many things that you cannot possibly be your own person, or maintain any ethics, conscience, or principles.

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