When I was in Leadership Liberal in 1999, Ivanhoe Love, Jr., led a session on leadership. During that session he created this scenario:
You are on a subway in a city you’ve never been before. Several times during your visit you’ve looked out the window and noticed a skid row bum living in the subway.
You are attending one business meeting to the next, and all of a sudden the subway comes to a halt, the doors fly open, and emergency notice says there is a fire in the subway, and everyone needs to get out.
You’ve never been to this stop, but a man who is also in town for the business meetings wearing a very expensive suit announces, “Follow me. I’ll find us a way out.”
You look out and see the skid row bum who says, “I live down here. I know the way out.”
Who are you following to get out?
Ivanhoe’s message was simple — leadership isn’t always what we might think it is, and sometimes it doesn’t look like what we think it should look like.
America might be experiencing a rediscovery of what leadership looks like in the White House.
We have back-to-back presidents that who have very different paths to the presidency.
Joe Biden served in government for half a century. He had all the experience of government behind him. He knew how the process worked, how Congress functioned, and after eight years as vice president he had the inside track to how the executive branch operated. When looking at a resume of government service, no one would be able to match the experience of Joe Biden.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, had no elected experience prior to 2016. He was an outsider. His lack of government experience quickly resulted in accusations and attacks from the very system he was trying to represent. The partisan divide that is the heart of Washington, D.C. resulted in a two-year effort to discredit the presidency with a now debunked claim of Russian collusion. When that failed, the ruthless insiders went after Trump for telling Ukrainian President Voldoymir Zelynski that he should look into Hunter Biden’s involvement with Burisma during Joe Biden’s term. It was a completely legitimate question, and we all now know Biden’s son was doing some illegal activities.
But Trump didn’t know how the game was played in Washington, D.C. because he wasn’t one of them.
The people wanted an outsider when Trump was elected, but when a once-in-a-century pandemic hit in 2020, the people wanted an insider, someone who would know how to use government to save lives.
And so Biden was elected under questionable circumstances according to some, but however it took place, Biden became president.
And the people got exactly what they wanted — a heavy-handed government response to a fear.
Biden knew how to use the government, and that’s exactly what he did. From manipulating the economy by printing trillions in cash to closing schools and requiring an experimental drug be used on soldiers, government employees, health care workers, etc., with the threat of losing jobs, Biden demanded compliance.
He did the same with businesses, from heavy handed government regulations on energy production to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion demands, Biden took the reins of government and rode roughshod over the people he ruled.
He also used the power of the government to attack his political opponents, deliverying an ominous anti-Ultra MAGA speech in front of Independence Hall with Marines and red lights pouring over the sacred historic venue, hints of the Stalinist era were bleeding through.
And what was the result? Massive inflation, wage reduction, more deaths from COVID under Biden than Trump, a wide open border and wars breaking out across the globe.
How did the people repay the heavy-handed government approach? By rejecting it and re-electing the outsider, the businessman, the billionaire that related more to the working class than the prepackaged political image of Biden and Kamala Harris.
Trump’s image was not created in a political campaign study session. He was who we was, rough edges and all. Despite the efforts to paint Trump as a fascist, mysogynistic racist, the people rejected heavy handed government.
And maybe we should learn a lesson from that. Maybe the best way to select leadership isn’t believing that those who have made a career in government are the best at it. They are the best at manipulating the system to their advantage, for sure.
But Trump has shown how to deliver as a leader. Yes, it took him a term to learn how to deal with D.C., but he has it down now, and he has been welcome in the Middle East with open arms. He established a multi-trillion dollar investment in America’s economy. He solved the open border problem almost overnight.
Trump is bringing warring factions to the table to discuss peace.
Trump isn’t telling other nations how to implement DEI policies and sending trillions of tax dollars to foreign nations. Instead, he is focusing on the American people and using business as his foreign policy north star.
President Calvin Coolidge said, “The business of America is business.” And Trump is using business to communicate American policy worldwide. Maybe that is how we should select leaders in the future.
Earl Watt is the owner and publisher of the Leader & Times in Liberal, Kansas. Watt started his career in journalism in 1991 at the Southwest Daily Times. During his career, the newspaper has won a total of 17 Sweepstakes awards from the Kansas Press Association for editorial content and 18 Sweepstakes awards for advertising. Watt has been recognized with more than 70 first place awards for writing in categories from sports and column to best front pages, best sports pages and best opinion pages. Watt is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and is the descendant of several patriots who fought for America's freedom and independence.
