The Time Has Come For Change In America

For starters, how about choices? Presently, we really only have two: the Democratic and Republican parties. The Libertarian and Independent parties exist, but not in a meaningful way. The media pays no attention to them and their organizations are meek at best!

When was the last time a member from one of these two parties was elected to a prominent position? I would be hard pressed to name one. I think Joel Liberman from Connecticut recently won the senate race as an independent, but that was strictly circumvention of the system since he lost the primary race as a Democrat! So what is he now? Of course he's a Democrat so what does that say for the system? Not much.

I view the Democratic and Republican parties as one long continuum. You have the hard line right wingers of the Republican Party all the way to the right of the continuum, and the liberal left wing Democrats all the way to the left of the continuum. Then you have a bunch of moderates who represent the bell curve in the middle from both parties. In essence you almost have one party to choose from: the moderates, because the right wingers and the liberals don't have enough clout to get anything done, but they have attached themselves to these two parties. Why haven't they created their own respective parties? I don't have the answer to that, but my gut tells me it has to do with what else, fundraising.

The reality is that they should form their own respective parties and then fight for what they truly believe in instead of leeching off of the Republican and Democratic parties. At least we would then have three choices, the conservative right-wingers, the liberal left- wingers, and the moderates.

All of these moderates have one solid thing in common -they cannot and will not answer a straight question with a one-word answer like yes or no. Instead they talk all around the questions and will digress all the way to the promised land in order to avoid taking a stance or position on any of the very tough issues that this book addresses? Is that leadership? I think not, because great leaders take positions, right or wrong; then they formulate a well thought out plan, implement the plan, and monitor the results constantly to ensure that the plan is tracking to its goals. If it strays, then it is tweaked, or countermeasures are taken to get it back on track. Great leaders are visionaries, innovators, and risk takers. Our moderate politicians exhibit none of these traits, and that's why they are part of the bell curve -shielded amongst the masses and hidden from plain view. They are always very quick to point out the other parties' mistakes, or their opponents' mistakes but do you ever hear them admit to their own? Where is the accountability? Just watch the debates - they are without a doubt the biggest wastes of time because none of the candidates will give you a direct answer, yet they will turn and face one of their opponents and throw darts at them for not answering the questions. It's an absolute joke. If I were running the debates, the candidates would be asked a series of questions that allow only for one-word answers; if they digress, a buzzer would go off and they would be penalized for not being straightforward.

Let's look back over our recent history and try and find some examples of great leadership. John F. Kennedy's vision to put a man on the moon by the end of the sixties is one that stands out in my mind. That represented a vision, the implementation of a plan, the constant monitoring of it and the successful conclusion when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon and said "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." That was inspiring. The next one that comes to mind was Franklin D. Roosevelt.