Sarah Palin’s so called common-sense conservative principles are
attractive. I understand how it would appeal to some for its
simplistic approach to solving America’s problems. Decisions,
directions and values are often very clear when the world is
perceived and portrayed to be black and white, good, bad, right and
wrong.
By Mark Grzan
Sarah Palin’s so called common-sense conservative principles are attractive. I understand how it would appeal to some for its simplistic approach to solving America’s problems. Decisions, directions and values are often very clear when the world is perceived and portrayed to be black and white, good, bad, right and wrong. In this simple world, all moms are soccer moms, all dads are coaching sports in the mid-afternoon, and on the weekends, we all barbecue. This mindset and lifestyle is quite appealing.
Unfortunately, that’s not the reality of most American households. It’s definitely not on the mind of the young pregnant teen, and it is not likely the reality for anyone that lives paycheck to paycheck. The world is anything but black and white, but a billion shades of gray where problems are intertwined, tight and constrained like a long strand of human DNA.
I look back a few years and remember our governor who had this same simplistic view. He was supposed to change things, and resolve major issues. He was supposed to shake up Sacramento with his down-to-earth approach. It’s not that he did not try, he just did not understand the complexities and the interrelationships between the many levels of government. As he has found, it’s anything but simple. It’s very complex and we need more than an image on a movie screen or a witty joke about a pit bull and lipstick to manage, move and change this sinewy vertical and horizontal interconnective infrastructure.
Yet I understand our frustration with government. It moves ever so slowly and at the moment, we seem to be willing to jump on anyone’s bandwagon who says he or she can break the deadlock. However, government moves slowly for a purpose. Contrary to popular belief, majorities do not rule. We are a republic where minorities have rights and those rights must be upheld even if it stands in the way of the majority. It’s what makes this not-so-perfect union perfect. After serving nearly 30 years in public administration and education, I’m amazed at what we have accomplished as opposed to what we have not.
In a world of unlimited wants and ever-limited resources, and to continue the good work that we do, we need intelligent and educated people with years of experience to leap, dodge and tunnel around the bureaucracy, like leaders who have special abilities to form a consensus. We need people whose decision-making processes are lead by research and analysis and not by misplaced tailgate ideology fueled by a six-pack mentality. Imagine where we would be today if we followed President Bush’s pro-business ideals for example to take funds from social security and invest it in the stock market?
I look at the two Republican CAOs vying for the governor’s seat, who firmly believe that the business executive can take a business approach to government and succeed. I disagree. The two are not similar. Carly Fiorina once commented that presidential candidate John McCain could never be a CAO of a major corporation. However, according to Fiorina, we can take a CAO and make him or her a successful governor. This myopic view is a self-contradiction. Both candidates have an extraordinarily simplistic view of government that underestimates its complexities and purposes.
While a corporation aims to serve its shareholders by increasing profits and the value of their shares, government has no interest in profit. It does what no other business would ever do, such as provide for our civil defense. Government’s interest is to serve the health and welfare of its people and it does that often with unfunded mandates and less than sustaining revenue. Business would have left every child behind because there is no profit in it and would have supported a monorail to the top of Yosemite Falls because there is.
The CAO commands and is the ultimate approving authority; a state governor’s ultimate power is actually not to approve but veto or threaten to veto bills and line items from the budget. He is constrained by the legislature, the federal government, the courts, and oftentimes by the initiatives you and I have approved by ballot.
America is not simple. Its problems are more complex than anyone of us could ever imagine. Leadership cannot be defined by images on a movie screen, lines of humorous rhetoric, or the bankroll of a CAO. Leadership must be defined by public sector accomplishment, by the ability and skills to form consensus amongst competing political interests, to unite by purpose and align by desire and to succeed.
The recession is not just in our economy, there is a recession in our leadership. Good, strong and knowledgeable leadership cannot be found. And when they do surface, we tear them up like shredded wheat and deprive them of every ounce of dignity and integrity when we need them so desperately. We have newscasters on FOX who admit they entertain rather than inform, they distort rather than clarify. It’s green journalism, driven by money and ratings that deprives America of what it needs most – good leadership.
Unfortunately, it’s not getting better, it’s just getting worse.
Mark Grzan is a former councilman
