2012 Happy New Year

Well once again we enter an election year. It seems to me every year is an election year lately. However, this one is about the Presidency of the United States. What does that mean to you and I. Beyond the unstoppable political rhetoric, commercials, and debates preempting all of our programs; it means we must choose who will run the country for the next four years.

Well first of all let me say Happy New Year to you. Now let’s really look at what we can see for the next year. While it will be full of political rhetoric, accusations, and counter-accusations, there will be one important thing missing, real leadership! You can say what you want, but there is a crisis of leadership in this country and has been for quite some time now. Neither of the primary two parties in this country has produced a real leader for many years of elections. Maybe this is because no one in their right mind would really want the office or job of president.

As I see it right now, it is coming down to the choice of either a rock star if we keep the same party in power, or an intellectual administrator if we elect the other party. It does not matter who runs for the republicans, they are all the same. Both parties today are little more than “Good old boys clubs, or girls clubs”. Whoever has earned the most longevity or has the most political charisma points will be the front runner for the party. And of course, the media will do everything within its corporate budget and means to sway us to vote for their personal choice instead of helping Americans make the right decision. Do you really think any of the media companies really cares what we really need in this country or what you or I actually think?

As a business professional and consultant, I know when an organization has a crisis of leadership. The organization drifts whichever way the wind is blowing. If the wind is blowing to the south, than the organization will follow it and drift to the south. If the wind shifts to the east, than the organization follows suit and begins to drift east. If the organization is unsure which way the wind is blowing, than nothing happens at all, somewhat like right now in America. If the political will within the governmental power circles drifts in any given direction, than the politicians will attempt to get the country to drift right along with it. I am not talking about the people’s political will, because very few in power in this country really cares what we want. It seems that nothing ever really gets accomplished without political infighting and accusations. The National Healthcare Plan was passed only because one political party owned the governing body totally for a short period of time, long enough to pass the legislation. However, the legislation will really do very little to ensure quality healthcare for all of the American people or reduce medical costs, the latter being the real problem.

Leadership requires that someone having the ability to bring together all of the players regardless of political affiliation to achieve a collaborative solution and then lead the way out of the mire. Who is really leading anything or anyone right now in our political system? Our current president, while well intentioned, cannot garner any real support outside of the political cronies of his own party. The other party cannot find anyone who can bring together their own party let alone get support from the other side. Where is the leadership?

I wonder what would happen if no one voted? Really, what would those in power do? Maybe leadership in this country should start with the American people. You and I after all are the ones who vote people in or out. Well that’s what the Constitution states anyway. Maybe it is time to quit listening to party rhetoric and start using our own brains to decide. I am awed year after year when I see people vote for a given party because that is the party they have always voted for. Every election it seems that there is a party for change. But once elected, nothing ever changes.

Let’s look at this through another unrelated example. In the late 1970s there was an oil embargo and gas prices shot through the ceiling. For the first time the American people were faced with the fact that some other country could have power over them. We began to realize that oil was not limitless and that at some point we would have to have alternative fuel sources for our vehicles. What was done about that, very little! Automakers threw a few junky high gas mileage vehicles at us for a little while and then went back to expensive gas guzzlers shortly thereafter. In the last few years we have once again seen the same type of crisis. Instead or working to find ways to build vehicles that could operate independently of gas or oil, the automakers continued as they had always done in the past and once again we face the same crisis all over.

You cannot tell me that the country that built the space shuttle and routinely sends space vehicles on multi-decade journeys into deep space without refueling could not have found a method to increase the gas mileage in our vehicles. If the American public refused to buy vehicles that did not get at least fifty miles to the gallon what do you think would happen? Within a year or two the automakers would have a whole host of vehicles that boasted of fifty or more miles to the gallon. However, we do not use this power. Instead we take what we are given and move on down the road complaining how nothing seems to go our way.

You and I wield the power in this country. Maybe no one has ever told you that before, but it is true. The politicians surely do not want you thinking for yourself so they will never tell you that. The media does not want us thinking for ourselves either. It is time for the American public to demand real leadership. There are real leaders out there, they’re always around. They will not however, usually generate the most gossip or look beautiful in photo shoots. You most likely will not see them on the cover of the news rags in the checkout line at the local store either. They are usually hardworking and attempting to accomplish something significant instead of trying to get on the nightly news.

I wish we Americans wanted solutions more than we want crazy reality TV. Maybe then we could actually accomplish something significant and lasting. There is nothing facing this country that cannot be solved. Some solutions may not be pretty or fun, but we can find our way out of this mess. If you are old enough to vote, than you are old enough to learn what is really going on and vote accordingly. Don’t just listen to your teacher, co-worker, or political partisan. Learn for yourself and find out what is real and what is not real and then vote accordingly. This may be hard to believe, but there are people around you who talk a great deal about this or that who in reality either do not have a clue what is going on, or have an agenda of their own to get you onboard. There are also those that will lie to you to get your vote, and they exist in both political parties.

Do you think I am wasting my time by writing this current segment of my blog, maybe? However, I cannot stand by one more year and watch our country once again waste away a moment of potential change without fighting for what I know is right! I wish more Americans would also join in and stand for nothing less than real leadership and not partisan political agendas or rhetoric. There are workable solutions and no one political party owns or can deliver them.

As far as I can see with the potential candidates we see at this particular juncture, the final choice comes down to more of the same as we have seen from the last four years if the democrats stay in power. Or, if the republicans gain the White House we will see more of the same we have seen over the last four years.

Without real leadership maybe our best hope is that the Mayans were in fact right about 2012!