Where have all the leaders gone?

"If"

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

“IF” Rudyard Kipling.

If America had a leader who could do these things, what would be its future?

In writing my “Special article(s) on "Leadership",especially the lead piece that establishes a conceptual context, I realized that the United States of America has simply had no viable leaders for a very, very long time-- not like Russia and China have leaders today – no one who can inspire a majority of the public to follow them – role models, men who have new ideas and values and honesty – who are seen as serving the nation, rather than just themselves.

Putin and Xi or statesmen-- and, as a result, they have accomplished much -- far more than any American president in recent memory. They are trusted because they keep their promises. In the US, “politician” is kind of pick pocket. Do you still have your wallet?

No American president in my lifetime (I was born in 1946) has accomplished anything like Putin and Xi, how literally reinvented Russia and China.Certainly none hs lived up to Kipling’s “If”

Perhaps the fault lies in the American political system, perhaps it is in the culture that defines America. One thing is certain: no American president — even so-called "executive" presidents —actually lead. Rather, they manage. Americans do not “follow” them out of a sense of moral or spiritual destiny —they obey or conform or just go with the crowd, isolated perhaps but going with the flow. We do not have “destiny” — we are “underlings” as Shakespeare says.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

American presidents are not leaders —but executives— CEOs of that massive political super-corporation which calls itself “America” but serving at the pleasure of a Board of Directors—the major shareholders —as it always has been, the wealthy.

The man on the street thinks a vote means share — but you have to be a billionaire to vote on corporate policy or for those shares to have value. .

As with any mega corporation, the US may be publicly listed-- but control, direction, goals, and profits and rewards-- go to the major shareholders.

Trillionaire Elon Musk is one. There is also Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai-- and many more. They and others are Trump’s directors.

This is not to say that some of these same people would not have supported Harris if she had won. Harris, Trump — what does it matter — they are hired help!

Billionaires are not nominally Democratic or Republican – they are not partisan in this way’ rather, they are what FDR called Organized Money. They share – a common goal – which is also Trump’s--economic power, defined as profit and loss for their shares. Trump himself was once a democratic and is now a Republican.

As a result, the US is leaderless. People follow others- who follow others— who follow media narratives, created by the billionaires who own the media.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

The first thing Putin did on coming to power was to turf half of Russia’s oligarchs, allowing only those to remain who pledged to serve the State and the public interest first .

Xi Jinping did something similar in China, along with a purge of the party corruption. You can get rich in Russia and China but not at the expense of the public interest. There are reasons for this which I explain in my special articles. Partly culture, partly history, partly personality.

Today, you can see Trump’s values in operation. Ukraine? Profit or loss? Oh...loss!...sell!

Trump doesn’t like “war”-- the military kind— because the US could only lose. But he has faith in winning an economic war, even though he doesn’t have the means to do that either. Does it matter? American corporations think quarterly. Not long-term.

The US is a company that doesn’t have anything to sell the world anymore. Once it sold a dream but the dream has become a nightmare.

Chappy and Ichi Playing

Another step forward. Ichi is teaching Chappy. Ummm…he is a “leader”. He teaches by example.

The Special Article now has FOUR parts. I am trying to break them into manageable and readable units, each about 4000 words. First one coming soon! Sorry for the delay — a lot of fact-checking necessitating revisions.

This is, I think, a very different approach to political analysis.

My Board of Directors are Ichi and Chappy. I serve coffee. So buy us coffees by clicking here.