Politics and Leadership

With all of the Election stuff going on, I have taken some time to reflect on the leadership of our country.

It seems to me that “leadership” is something that I cannot identify with politics. I was recently ranting about my opinions about politics when a friend of mine said, “Why don’t you run for office?” That was a good way to shut me up, but also to get me thinking about it. Here are my conclusions:

When I was in philosophy class we talked about Plato and his ‘Philosopher-King’ idea. Plato, the extremist that he was, believed that most people do not know what is good for them, so it takes a special kind of person to rule over them as king – it takes a philosopher he said (convenient, since he was a philosopher). Of course, he lived in a time where there was a clear distinction between social classes and anyone not in the noble class was considered ignorant of what is best for them.

We have a bit of a different social system going on here in America. We believe that everyone, regardless of creed, race, or other differences, has equal rights to freedom and knowledge. While we still have some social class divisions, we not longer hold that anyone who is not ultra-wealthy is ignorant of what is best for them. With that in mind, I personally believe that as a culture we have strayed too far from the Truth. Of course, as a actively practicing and believing Catholic, I believe that “truth” is what God has revealed to us as a race over the last several thousand years. Our American culture has strayed far from this truth and we continue to get farther and farther away. If we do not understand these revealed truths, then it is impossible to know what is best for us.

On that point, I believe that many people in America do not know what is best for them.

Back to the point at hand: Leadership and politics are not coinciding anymore. I believe that at one point in history they did, but not anymore. Why do I say this? I define leadership (in this narrow context) as leading people in a way that keeps their best interests in mind. A parent leads a child by doing what is best for the child. Does the child know what is best for it? Usually not; the child only knows what it wants and doesn’t want. Our American culture has produced a bunch of adult children who do not know what is best for them, they only know what they want and they cry when they don’t get it. A true leader would do what is best for them regardless of the whining and screaming. Our current politics is set up on the right idea – our elected politicians are supposed to represent the people. But this assumes that the people know what is right for themselves, and I believe that assumption is not being met. So what we get are political representatives doing whatever a mob of angry adult-children want, not true political leaders.

So why won’t I run for office? Because I refuse to give into the whims and wants of the mob; I would instead insist on doing what I know is best for them. But since it is the mob that elects its representatives, I would never get elected because it would be abundantly clear to them that I would not do what they want. Democracy fails when the people are longer in touch with the Truth and what is best for them. This is the state I believe we are in here in this country. As much as I disagree with many of Bush's choices, he has at least given an effort to be a true leader by doing what he believes is right for the country, reagrdless of what the mob is screaming. He may not be popular, but what good leader is in times of distress?

This failure of democracy is one of the many reasons why I respect the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. They do not suffer from these problems in the same way we do.