Following the recent election there's a lot of myth and projection going on, but I'm also seeing a fair bit of sober thought on the GOP side to go with it. Thats good. The first step, and in many ways a critical one, is going to show itself early: who gets chosen to the GOP's leadership positions in the House and Senate? Good choices there will have a multiplier effect. So will poor choices. Leadership matters.
So, what kind of leadership? And what does it take to be effective? Well, I'll get to that, but first I'm going to hand the floor to someone else. Dean Barnett has been involved in conference calls with the handful of congress-folk who seek various leadership roles. He picked up a question from NZ Bear's site, and has been asking this on various conference calls:
"What books have you read about Islamic terrorism against America and the West?"
That's it. that's all. Thus far, asked in 3 conference calls.
Verdict thus far: None have the 3 have been able to name a single book.
Now, he didn't get everyone. Book learnin' ain't everything, or even a large minority of everything. There's a lot of time pressure on Congressfolk. Plus, the kind of personality that gets people elected to Congress is often a personality that isn't exactly book-centric. You could repeat this experiment across the aisle, and I'd expect similar results (many would probably cite Michael Moore's movie instead, from the laudatory party showing after its release).
So we grant all of that. And yet....
When you're facing the greatest issue of your time, you'd better have a perspective derived from something more than the daily newspapers, and extrapolation from experiences in your local district. The whole War on Terror, soon to be The Islamic War, is an area in which the GOP needs to do significantly better than it has done. But that's impossible without elected leaders who really grok the magnitude of what we face, and grasp the issues. Only then can they perform the twin tasks of articulating all that to the public, and pushing their party to get its act in gear. Barnett's experience suggests that the GOP's failure in the latter 2 areas may be closely derived from a failure in the first 2... and 5 years after 9/11, coming from the non-insane party, that's a truly frightening thing to contemplate.
All this is even more true for folks who aspire to leadership roles, in the party that for good or ill is going to play a disproportionate role in the war we're all engaged in. A war that's still very much in its early phases - or perhaps more accurately, not yet metastisized into its full growth.
But it will, for reasons that have very little to do with the USA's internal politics. And the time to start getting seriously prepared for it - at all levels - is yesterday.
You bet. In the United States House and Senate, leadership is of such mind-boggling importance that it almost ranks up there with neckties and pantsuits.
Of course, it shrinks to insignificance compared to the importance of having good hair. If you've got good hair, you don't really need anything else.
If you've got hair that looks like acrylic fiber, a good dentist, and a cosmetic surgeon who can inject parts of your ass into your face, you can be on everybody's Presidential short list even if you can't lead a pig to a slop trough.
So if, like Samuel P. Huntington (Clash of Civilizations), you have something important you want to say, the first thing you have to do is publish the short article which is the only thing that anybody with any power will ever read. Maybe. If they read it.
Except for George W. Bush. George W. Bush reads books. But apart from him, probably no.
I'll bet that Newt has read more than one...
I wonder if the 9/11 report counts as a book, or if it is something you just pass into law.
Agreed but don’t members of Congress have access to reports and briefings about the War which aren’t made public upon which to base their decision? It’s sort of like the hubbub when President Bush was reported to have said that he didn’t read newspapers. Why the heck should he when he gets a national security briefing in the morning which is probably full of far more useful information that will never show up in a newspaper (and then only after it’s no longer current or useful)?
It seems to me that members of Congress (particularly higher ranking members with higher clearance levels) probably have access to many of the same materials. In which case, why would they read a book full of outdated material when they have access to better sources (including things that would be unlikely to appear in any book)?
The single most important issue the republicans ran on. "The botched joke."
Please halp us jon carry
by S.W.Charleston III
Please halp us jon carry, cuz we r stuck here in irak
Donny Rumsfeld is a genius, and dubya has got our back
The people here all love us, and there is no other place we would rather be
Everyone wants to be occupied, and there is no insurgency
Please halp us jon carry, cuz only you r to blame
You had no plan for the occupation, and your incompetence fanned the flames
The people here all love us, and deluge us with flowers and sweets
We will keep on pawn sacrificing, until your victory is complete
Please halp us jon carry, cuz you said “bring em on”
You weren’t too concerned about Osama, but at least you got Saddam
The people here all love us, for helping them build an Islamic theocracy
All of the bloodshed and chaos is their version of democracy
Please halp us jon carry, cuz we are having too much fun
Unlike you, Bush is a war hero, and he will never cut and run
The people here all love us they show how much with their bombs
You put us in this quagmire, and got (us) stuck in another Vietnam
Please halp us jon carry, cuz too many of our brave brothers and sisters have died
You said “mission accomplished, but as death toll keeps rising we know you lied
The people here all love us, as do our families who want us to come home
“Stay the course” you declare, and play your fiddle like Nero in burning Rome
Please halp us jon carry, cuz we all think the same
We watch Fox news, vote Republican and know the liberals are to blame.
The people here all love us, and giving our lives is a small price to pay
We don’t want be here, but have no choice other than to serve and obey
Please halp us jon carry, cuz we are disposable heroes and cannon fodder
Your lies and ignorance have led us, like patriotic lambs to the slaughter
The people here all love us, just like Halliburton and the war profiteers too
The right wing pundits would volunteer to fight, if they didn’t have better things to do
Please halp us jon carry, cuz Tony Snow and Karl Rove were right
You really should apologize; criticizing the messiah Bush is a blasphemous slight
The people here all hate us, because of your botched joke
The war was going beautifully, before you opened your mouth and spoke