Leadership
An apparent lost art that Freemasonry has been teaching for hundreds of years
The first Presidential election that I paid attention to in my youth was Carter -vs- Reagan. Reagan was extremely clear in his criticisms of the government he hoped to lead. And the voters rewarded him with a landslide.
Following that landslide, he went to work, leading the country.
This of course wasn’t anything unusual or in any way different from the norm. Since the founding of the United States, citizens have run for office. While doing so, they have praised what they have believed the government doing well, and criticized what they have found the government to be doing wrong. Once elected, they have gone on to lead.
But, it isn’t that way anymore.
Today we are electing people who have no intention of leading the government after they are elected to office. For these people the election itself, and the time between elections is nothing more than a form of performance art. A spectacle in which media coverage rather than effective leadership has become the primary motivation and goal.
To be clear, this is something new in our society. Leadership is a skill, and while in the past voters have elected some exceptional leaders, we have also elected some very poor leaders. It is unfortunate, but no other outcome could result given our system of government.
But, providing good leadership was always the goal. We weren’t electing people who had no intention of even trying to lead.
Today we are.
Today we are, in cases, electing people who have absolutely no intention of leading. All they seek to do is their version of performance art. To seek fame and fortune through a refusal to lead.
This is proven by the fact that as of this writing, the House of Representatives has been without a Speaker for two weeks. In practical terms, this means that the majority in the House has been unable to pursue any of its priorities, in other words, lead, for two weeks now. That of course cripples the Senate through collateral damage, leaving fully one third of our government unable to function.
We have this result because we have elected people who have no desire to lead, who prefer instead to do nothing but throw rhetorical bombs.
All while our world is being plunged into ever deeper and widening war.
Prior to this of course we had a Speaker removed through the actions of renegades in his own caucus, and before that it took fifteen votes for the majority to select that Speaker.
The fact of the matter is that no priority, of any member of the House can be enacted, or even considered, without a Speaker of the House. If any of those who are stopping a Speaker from being elected actually wanted to see their ideas debated and ultimately passed into law, they would lend their support to the election of a Speaker. The fact that they are not doing so is proof that they do not believe their own words from the campaign trail, and is further proof that they have no intention of actually leading the government. Meeting their goal of being mentioned on the nightly news is instead their only driving force.
Ultimately our nation can not function in this way, and it will not function in this way. If we do not start electing men and women who hold a desire to lead the government they are elected to lead, our nation will suffer collapse as others have collapsed before.
This is on us, the voters. When we vote we must select leaders, not performance artists.
Freemasonry has been teaching the fine art of democracy for hundreds of years. Men come to Lodge, and learn how to present their ideas. They learn how to argue for and against ideas without attacking the man presenting those ideas. They learn how to win a vote with grace, and lose a vote with dignity. That is what we teach.
Millions in our society today need to learn what our Lodges teach, if our nation is to survive and thrive.
Not all that long ago, I could slap a link up on Social Media and get an Emeth post in front of plenty of Freemasons. Indeed that is how Emeth grew to encompass over two thousand subscribers. But that isn’t the case today. Social Media algorithms have changed. If I share an Emeth post now, only a tiny handful of Masons see it.
Can you help? Will you share this post on your own Social Media feed, or email it to your Brothers? Doing so makes a tremendous difference.
If you can, Thank You!
When I was a kid, I used to read a lot of Western novels. I haven’t done so since then, but the other day, on impulse, I picked up an old Louis L’Amour novel written in 1962. Reading it, I encountered a quote that speaks to the time we are living in. A bit of wisdom that we do well to remember:
“Spanyer knew that no man could be judged except against the background of his time. The customs and moral standards of a time were applicable only to that time…”
-Louis L’Amour, High Lonesome
Not to debate the mechanics, but we hardly have any choice in who is elected at all given the stranglehold of two party organizations. We are often not given choices that are tolerable. The ignorance of the masses doesn't help.
We have the worst democratic compared with any "free" nation in the world. SLOWLY we are opening up primaries, embracing rank-choice voting, etc., but meanwhile, jerrymandering and voter suppression is rampant. If we don't clean this up, no pet peeve policy or cause from either side of the aisle matters.
My dad was a huge Louis L’Amour fan. He actually bought the complete leather bound time life set of his books and when he passed my sister took them. I remember reading the hand me down paperbacks as a kid. While most of the stories were basically the same, they all ingrained basic moral codes that I’m sure helped influence my own outlook on life, the universe and everything.
And you are right, this country is being led, not by our elected officials, but the machines in each party. My only criticism is that while the “renegades” may make the gop look like dysfunctional brats, it also exposes how the democrats don’t think for themselves, they simply rubber stamp whatever the dnc machine tells them to, regardless of how they or their constituents actually feel. Sad sad state of affairs.