Credibility is the currency of leadership. Honesty fosters trust. Adherence to universally accepted facts, even when they do not serve an agenda, commands respect.
Believable statements and coherent reasoning by a leader makes them easy to follow. An easy to follow leader instills confidence in all those subject to their decision making. It bodes well over time for the currency of leadership to be stacked high and deep. Faith in leadership is a very helpful intangible in assuaging mass angst when a threatening circumstance presents. It can be the deciding variable in determining the perception of a mere inconvenience or a full blown crisis.
As of March 11th, 2020, the United States along with the rest of the World is officially confronting a Coronavirus global pandemic.
Whether or not things would be better for America if a seasoned public servant were in charge is the existential question of our time. Every American regardless of ideology or political stripe is tasked with reconciling the grim reality of having a self-serving reality show host and failed businessman at the helm of our ship of state overseeing the worst threat to life and liberty of our lifetime. After three years in office, the incumbent president’s stack of leadership currency does not exist. I am sure that we can all agree that failing to plan is planning to fail. Assertions that nobody saw an outside threat that could endanger the health and well being of every single person in our nation simply fail to stand on merit. Beginning even before he disbanded the National Security Council Pandemic Response Unit two years ago, this Commander-in-Chief has demonstrated on multiple occasions that he is incapable of meeting the bare minimum standard of competence for the job he holds. He exemplifies the concept that undermines contemporary American conservatism, ie, he demands the credit/benefit of everything good and refuses to be accountable for any and all failure. According to this president, he is not responsible through either his actions or inactions for the spread of the Covid-19 virus crisis as new cases and deaths from it mount. Moreover, he genuinely believes that he is doing an exemplary job of its management. By what metric could any rational individual arrive at such a conclusion?
After wasting valuable time dismissing this virus threat as a hoax and willfully spreading disinformation about it, this president is once again learning hard lessons about executive responsibility at the nation’s expense. The result of this mismanaged disaster is a ratcheted up sense of urgency and the necessitating of abiding by expert advice (which should have been a priority and should never be dismissed) by the Infectious Disease specialists at the Centers for Disease Control in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. The implementation of social distancing protocol, limiting commerce and closing non-essential businesses by declaring a quarantine has markedly altered life as we have known it. The necessary measures are so simple but at the same time so difficult: Stay home and avoid or limit contact with other members of our species and step up everyday hygiene and housekeeping practices like hand-washing and disinfecting. The alternative is an increase in spread of the virus resulting in avoidable illnesses and fatalities. The required intervention however has brought our World and day to day life to an abrupt halt.
System failure is a direct reflection of leadership. When our leadership fails we have to look within ourselves and do the next indicated thing, that being to ensure and safeguard our own personal safety and well-being first. Again, it is not difficult to follow social distancing protocol and basic and frequent hand-washing and other measures to limit spread of the virus. It may not be complicated but it is indeed essential and it may become quite tedious over time. The economic consequence of this circumstance has imposed on most of us a very uncomfortable choice between being solvent or being healthy and/or alive. If self-preservation is an instinct any of us possess, we must marshal all we can muster NOW. We must all resolve to see this ordeal through to the end. We can worry about the economic fallout later as it is going to be widespread and will likely spare few of us.
Let us never forget what our parents and grandparents had imposed on them lest we lapse into a funk of self-pity. We are not getting drafted, being placed under arms and shipped off to a foreign shore where we risk dying an ugly death. Sure, the specter of an ugly death may still be with us but we are being advised to stay home, relax on the couch, watch TV, stay informed and simply refrain from risky behaviors that may spread disease.
There is nothing like a global pandemic bearing down on us to help place things that matter into appropriate perspective. We have yet to see how well the quarantine efforts will blunt mass infection and the worst is still anticipated. That said, social distancing and self-isolation protocols could stay in effect well into the summer months. Regardless, we all pack the gear to navigate our way through this crisis. Some pundits are already talking like it will be a new World when Covid-19 is reduced via vaccine and natural immunity to a mere annoyance. As strange as our universe has become in the past two weeks, all we need to do is remain steady on course. As unreal and frightening as this virus may be, it is entirely survivable if we all work together.
I hope you are right about the future outcome with this disease, Stan, but as you also point out we have yet to see how well our efforts will bear fruit…
The fact that this virus can & does run rampant without any symptoms for up to 2 – 3 weeks is extremely difficult to overcome, particularly without a complete and total quarantine to control further infections. For there is no way to isolate anyone from their own family members, without massive and continual testing for the virus, early enough to keep the whole families from being exposed…
That is never going to take place within the US, which is without any central command authority, such as more authoritarian countries have in place. Consequently, our efforts to control the virus are going to be haphazard and piecemeal, and as a result many many more people are going to die here.
The fact that they will do so over time, first here and then there, also means that the overall time-frame of the disease will be extended, as it is transported first from one State or region, then to another, and still another, and so on, and so on. And that is a likely method to ensure that it becomes an endemic problem, that never truly goes way. For the idea that this disease must run a set course, and then disappear, is still totally unproven.
As for the idea that a vaccine will surely be found, in time, to render it harmless… that may not even be possible, just as it has proven impossible to do so with the AIDS virus. It is simply too soon to tell with this disease, and in any event it will take many months to get it into full-scale production and disseminate it to the populace.
This situation is not close to being over, by any means… and the fact that incompetent assholes are in charge of the federal response will most certainly NOT help any of the States, or our fellow countrymen, get over it any sooner. To think that it will be perfectly okay to load all the church pews full of people by the time Easter Sunday rolls around, is completely insane… and anyone who follows THAT advice is a full-blown idiot.
Excellent observations and description of our current status. Your clear, rational essay gives me hope that good, sane leadership is still alive in America. The mystery of this man’s leadership/fervent followers intrigues me; why people place faith in him is beyond me. I just want to find something good from this experience that I never imagined possible…someone, please wake me from this nightmare. Thank you, Stan.