It is sad to live in an age when our elected “leaders” do not lead as expected, not as needed.
We are in the middle of a pandemic, an economic recession, and a rise in white supremacy. There is a lot on the table that needs to be solved. People are hurting, and hurting badly. Mom’s and dad’s don’t have jobs. Small businesses are going under left and right. Ever more children are going hungry than ever before. Thousands of people are dying every day of COVID, and many thousands more are becoming infected every day. And, we have law enforcement officers and elected officials who believed it was okay partake directly, or indirectly, in sedition and insurrection.
We have a Senate Majority Leader who has yet to assume the power that is his right as the Majority Leader. He has not assumed this power because he is waiting for the former Leader to relinquish the power. It is as if he has learned nothing about how the trumplicans/Republicans operate. Senator Schumer is not leading as needed.
We have U.S. Senate members elected as leaders of their states and the nation. Senators who were in grave danger just a few weeks ago. As we are finding out, some of their fellow senators, were a part of insurrection. However, these partners in working to bring down democracy are still sitting in the Senate even though the Constitution provides a way to expel them from the Senate. The U.S. Senate is not leading as needed.
We have U.S. Representatives elected as leaders for their districts and the nation. These same Representatives were in grave danger just a few weeks ago. Every day, we get more stories about how some of the Representatives, as insiders, were assisting the seditionist leading an insurrection, in real time, working to bring down democracy. These insiders who also voted to not recognize the will of the people are still seated as U.S. Representatives, even as the Constitution lays out how to expel them from the U.S. House of Representatives. Representative Pelosi is not leading as needed.
Then we have the media, leaders unto themselves. They too have not been leading as expected, nor as needed.
Think about it. We had a mob of people, assisted by the Big Lie perpetuated by elected officials, culminating in a breach of the Capitol Building intent on murdering the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, and whomever they may have gotten their hands on, and not one newspaper or news station, to my knowledge, called for the resignation of the lame duck that very Thursday morning. Our democracy almost fell because of the leader of the free world, and not one newspaper immediately calls for him to resign, when every single one of the media outlets and every single elected official should have called for the lame duck’s resignation at each any every available opportunity.
Now, they are printing and broadcasting stories about a Rolex. They keep thinking we should get into the minds of the voters. They keep harping on unity. But they are harping on us needing to get to know the losers of the election, not the winners. Why aren’t they asking to get into the minds of Biden supporters, or unity by trumplicans/Republicans? Why do the democrats always have to be the ones to bend over backwards to maintain the peace? Why aren’t the media calling right now, at each and every opportunity, for the resignation of Hawley, Cruz, Cotton, McCarthy, Boebert, Taylor Greene, and their ilk, along with the conviction of the lame duck in the impeachment trial? We have real crises occurring right now with people trying to end democracy, and the media is not leading as needed.
Why do they not lead? If they didn’t want to make the hard, the right, the necessary decisions, why did they run for office, or get involved in media, in the first place? If they can’t, or won’t, step up, then they too must resign so hopefully, the person replacing them will work to ensure the Constitution is followed, and they make decisions to lift the nation’s people as a whole.
Lead or step aside. Those are really the only two choices that matter at this moment in history.
Lead, or step aside.
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 