Leadership Style

Folks, there are many of you out there who are Obama supporters and who are saying things like:

“Our Healthcare System has needed major overhauling for the last 20 years and everyone agrees that it is unsustainable as is. Somebody had to take the bull by the horns and fix it. Obama stepped up to the challenge and passed Obamacare almost single-handedly. Now everyone is fighting him.”

“Our Immigration System has been a mess for years and our country needs immigrants. They do work that Americans don’t want to do. Immigrants are what made us who we are today. All these poor people want to do is come here to work. Somebody had to fix this mess. It’s been going on for years. Obama finally stepped up to it and unilaterally signed an Executive order for his version of the Dream Act.”

“Gay Marriage has been a debate in our country for years and Obama finally stepped up to this issue and declared that he is in favor of Gay Marriage. He says he has evolved (not flip-flopped)to this position. He also, unilaterally, via Executive Order, eliminated Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell from our military. At least he’s taking some action. All the Republicans want to do is block everything he does and cause him to fail.”

Now, if we objectively (honestly) analyze these major, groundbreaking decisions on the surface, we might conclude that Obama has demonstrated leadership in these areas. We may not all agree with his positions on these issues but he has advanced the issue. The question is how? How has he managed the process of government? How has he demonstrated leadership on these matters? What type of leadership has he demonstrated and what leadership style has he utilized? Let’s examine all of this

On Healthcare…Obama decided he was going to pass a Healthcare Bill come hell or high water. He had a 50 vote majority in the House and a 60 vote (veto proof) majority in the Senate and he used this political power to “ram through” a 100% partisan, most unpopular Healthcare Bill, which is currently being challenged in the Supreme Court of this nation. Remember, this major legislation was passed without a single Republican vote and current polls show that 68% of the American people oppose it. Twenty six states have sued the Federal Government over this Healthcare bill! Additionally, the CBO reports that this bill will NOT cut costs (as Obama promised) nor does it correct the spiraling cost trajectory (as Obama promised). Also, the quality of healthcare, especially to seniors, has already begun to diminish in anticipation of this healthcare plan. Furthermore, there are many analysts who have reported that this Healthcare Bill has stifled our economic recovery because businesses are unwilling to expand until they know the outcome of the Supreme Court decision and the impact of the penalties and taxes in said bill.

On Immigration…Obama decided he would unilaterally grant working papers to children of illegal aliens who were brought to America (illegally) through no fault of their own, as long as those children were less than 30 years old, and either served in our military or attained a degree from our education system and who have no criminal record. Obama says this target group numbers 800,000 illegals. The second report (3 days later) I heard on this number had it raised to 1.4 million. What will this number be before we are done? Am I being unfairly suspicious when I say that this number will get larger before we enact the legislation? Additionally, one might ask, about the other shoe dropping. That is, what will happen after Obama effects his brand of the Dream Act? Will the Democrats then agree to deport the illegal parents that brought these Dream Act children to this country illegally or will the Democrats (and Obama) then say that we can’t break up families and will they then demogogue the Republicans for being the party of Family Values yet willing to break up these immigrant families. How far will the Democrats take us down this slippery slope of illogical thinking?

And finally, when Obama recently “evolved” (not flip-flopped) to his epiphany regarding Gay Marriage, he did so at a time when 31 of our 50 states had voted against Gay Marriage. What about the will of the people? In fact, California, the bastion of liberal thinking voted AGAINST Gay marriage three times, at the ballot box, and the people’s votes were ignored and overturned by the 9^th District Appeals Court. What about the representation of the people and the power of our freedom at the ballot box? Should We The People get concerned (worried) when we vote for something and then some court overturns our vote because the court disagrees with us?

In all three of these ground breaking issues, Obama has demonstrated an autocratic leadership style that arguably could be classified as dictatorial. He granted total freedom to the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (extreme partisans, to say the least) and expended all his political capital on the Healthcare Bill, utilizing a (rarely used for major legislation) political tactic known as the nuclear option. He demonstrated no concern for the will of the American people, nor for the system of checks and balances that our Fore Fathers ensured in our Constitution. He rammed this bill through, sometimes with artificial deadlines, night time votes and week-end caucuses, and often stifling the voice of the opposition/minority party. He blatantly and arrogantly ignored his campaign promises to present the most transparent administration to we, the American people, as he refused to present the details of this 2900 page controversy for a 72 hour preview on the internet and to conduct the debates on C-Span. One might conclude he passed his Healthcare Bill in spite of us! Some analysts might conclude that Obama worked around our system of Checks and Balances and circumvented the representation of the people (ie Congress). Why? Because he knew better? Because he is more right than the majority of Americans and he knows what’s best for us?

Obama demonstrated similar dictatorial tactics in his recent Dream Act Executive Order. While Marco Rubeo, Republican Senator of Florida, has been floating a similar proposal, Obama beat Congress to the punch, moved before Rubeo could offer his legislation and avoided ALL the debates and law making activities that would normally accompany (and improve) such legislation. Why? Note that this Obama Executive Order was timed one week before Obama addressed the Latino voters on a campaign speech.

Now one of the more interesting aspects of all of these unilateral, dictatorial actions is that Obama is currently campaigning against a “Do Nothing Congress”. He is doing everything he can to avoid any debates on his record (which is questionable, at best) and instead to convince the electorate that his failings are not his own but the result of what he inherited from George Bush and the result of a “Do Nothing” Republican House and a boisterous Tea Party segment in the Senate who will not compromise and who are just dedicated to his failure. He keeps acting unilaterally; he keeps using Executive Orders; he keeps running around Congress and then he comments that Washington is broken and that the Republicans are unwilling to compromise. This leadership style is the height of absurdity! It is  Machiavellian! It is terribly flawed, blatantly obvious and frightening! It is beneath the office of president! It reminds us that Obama has never held a job in the Private Sector; has never worked a real job for one day in his life; has never held an executive position in any company; has never managed people; has ONLY experience as Community Organizer in Chicago Style politics!!!!

The truth of the matter is that almost every American will agree that our Healthcare System needs reform and improvement and our Immigration Policy needs reform and improvement and as do our statutes regarding the Gay Community. The key is not only what we do to reform and improve these major issues but how we do it and when we do it. Our Constitution has provided us with a framework to manage these types of issues and over the years our Balance of Powers concept and our bi-cameral Congress has collectively debated issues and collectively developed solutions that have been carefully designed and intelligently implemented. Our history is replete with equal and fair representation from ALL the people and we have worked hard and fought wars to maintain our freedom from tyranny, dictators and singular, autocratic powers. There is no doubt that We The People can resolve these major issues of our day in the same freedom first fashion that we passed the Civil Rights Act and Women’s Rights, and every other reform and improvement that has made us the great nation that we have become!

Obama’s leadership style needs to be analyzed and challenged. His “Blame everyone but me” attitude and his “I got more votes and elections have consequences” attitude is hardly a prerequisite to fostering compromise. As if Washington wasn’t bad enough to begin with, Obama has worsened it by introducing his Chicago brand politics to an already screwed up town. And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, Obama keeps looking into the TV cameras with a wide-eyed, confounded look of innocence and wonders why there’s no compromise in the Congress. Gimmie a break!

I read Obama’s two autobiographies BEFORE he was elected. I am not surprised by any of his actions, distortions, lies or deceit. I just hope that the American populace has caught up to his deceptive technique and his ineffective leadership style and I hope that the majority of Americans are no longer guilt ridden, “please don’t call me a racist” voters. I also pray that the majority of American voters have enough knowledge and education to understand the difference between Socialism and Capitalism and that they realize that although Capitalism is tough and it has winners and losers, Socialism has only losers (except for the few central Planners who steal your freedoms and decide what’s good for all of us). Any person with any sense of World History realizes that there is not one……not one…….not one…… successful Socialist State, ever in the world. Not one!!!!! Take a look at present day Europe. Those nations that have not already failed are virtually bankrupt!

So, folks, let’s understand what is going on in our country and let’s understand Chicago style politics and Washington’s insider process and the complicit liberal media, and differing leadership styles, and Socialism vs. capitalism, and the deceptions of politicians, in general. Then let us realize that our great America is the greatest country in the history of this planet and our Constitution has held up for 200+ years and our form of government is by the people and for the people and that there is no room in our government for a dictator, a unilateralist, a Socialist, or anyone else who wants to work around our system and our Congress (who represents the people).

Finally, when you understand what’s going on in Washington today, let’s hope we ALL come to the same conclusion and that is……..Throw the Bums out!!!!

carlo