The Terrible Price of Weak Leadership

Two Examples Prove Their Weakness Almost Daily. Now a Third?

Why Weak Leaders Carry Such a Cost

Every case is unique of course, but finding someone in a leadership position for which they are clearly incapable of fulfilling is a painful thing to observe. In almost every such case, there are clear costs to be extracted:

• Everything in the organization becomes transactional. There is very little in the way of mutual respect or loyalty to the leader. The goals and priorities of that leader are up for grabs and up for sale – or are simply ignored. The end result is an institution without principles or capacity.
• Trust is nonexistent internally, and thus trust and confidence by the public is the first casualty. The institution itself, as well as the players, are subject to scorn, fear, and disgust.
• Small, organized groups internally, have disproportionate power. The tail wags the dog. Everyone else in the organization feels marginalized and have even less respect or trust in the so-called leader.
• Eventually, a crisis comes along to bring down the leader, and often much of the organization. Such a profile has no capacity to resist or adapt; it does what it does until it burns out or crashes.
  All of this sound familiar? Of course, it does. By now, you surely know who we are talking about at the national level but let us call them out anyway.

Case Number 1

The most obvious example is, of course, Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Watching his painful election process take place was a window on what was to come. In the end, one of his most extreme members stated that he voted for McCarthy in the end because he could not think of anything else to demand. McCarthy gave his extreme wing everything they could think to ask for – everything.

For a brief moment, he rose above this, acted like an adult, and was presented a solid example of how to go forward a free man. In making a debt deal with President Biden, he was a partner in passing a bill that no one loved but a solid majority in both parties agreed was necessary and was about as good a deal as could be had.

He could have held on to that model for the rest of the term. Had he done so, he could have told his right wing to go pack sand. They would howl and make life hard for him, but he could have won out and, by the way, put his party in much better shape for 2024.

Instead, he caved. In less than two weeks, he was back groveling and asking for support. “Investigative hearings” that actually caused out loud laughter, a shameful censure of  a member of Congress who had properly pummeled Trump, and a silly effort to impeach Biden all came about.

One Senator does like an administrative ruling of the Administration on abortions, so he has frozen the promotion vote of over 250 senior military leaders. Shortly, the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff services leadership will step down by law. At the moment, no one will be able to step in. The Senator says too bad, he will not budge.

One would think the Speaker of the House, second in line for the presidency, would work to shut this nonsense over in the Senate down. Not a chance. McCarthy the dog is again being wagged by the right wing tail. The senator knows the extremists run the House, not the Speaker.

Can you think of anyone who even likes, less more respects, McCarthy? His ability to accomplish anything is minimal and, because of his choices, at risk every day. The country needs a lot done. Instead, we will waste many months waiting on actual leadership to take the gavel.

Case Number 2

Not a tough one to guess, once again. Say hello to Chief Justice John Roberts of the US Supreme Court. In fairness, Roberts does not have as much statutory authority as one would expect, but he has (or could have) moral authority and a wealth of administrative tools at his disposal.

The US Supreme Court has not had such low standings in the public since the question has been asked in polls. And it sinks lower daily. The level of corruption and arrogance is remarkable by any measure. Roberts seems completely unable to get in front of it.

We saw this coming when the link of the abortion ruling happened. Instead of bringing in professional investigators, he asked his Sergeant of Arms (!) to do the investigation. Oh, and set it up so that no justices were required to provide sworn testimony. Others were, not the judges.

Later, when all the corruption information started coming out, Roberts could have used executive authority to impose the same standards as all other federal judges and set up an independent review authority. Not happening. When the Congress asked him to come explain to them what the situation is and what he is doing, he declined. He tells us they take it seriously and are working to develop a best solution. If you believe that one, I have a bridge I would like to sell you.

The rest of the legal profession, especially judges, must be appalled at the stick all this puts on their profession and on the law. Let us up the 2024 election gives us a White House and two houses of Congress ready to force reform on a court that will not do the right thing itself. Once again, at this point, no one could trust the court on such matters.

Now a Third One?

Way too soon to know where events will go, but the amazing events in Russia have me riveted. This could go really good, really bad, or both. In any case, this is an interesting example of a strong man who appears to have become very badly weakened. It is the classic case of a dictator failing. He has no one to give him criticism or even honest advice. Eventually, he runs off the rails in his fantasy world and finds he is more isolated than he ever imagined.

Too many people for too many reasons are ready to see him go. Someone even worse could come in, but I smell the end is near. I used to joke that the Russians could solve their problem with one unhappy Army officer close by with a pistol. That may not be far from the truth. Watch this one closely and keep your fingers crossed that extremism nor desperation makes all this worse for the world. For now, we have no clue how this may go, along what lines.

See you next week.

Bill Clontz

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