South by Southwest: New Leadership

Friday, January 19, 2007

New Leadership

The original leaders - Different branches of the federal government play more or less dominant roles at different times. The U.S. Constitution's authors designed our system to be in a constant state of dynamic tension. The pull and tug among the branches is very healthy and to be celebrated. What they did not envision was the pull and tug between political parties.
The people lead - The American people were forced last fall to look to their parties to change the dynamic of government. As we watched 110th Congress at work since coming back into session, we have seen a change in the balance of power between the Democratic majority controlled Congress and the current Republican administration.

Switched leaders - Our Current President (OCP) no longer has it all his way. His Iraq war has gone very badly and the plan to right it is rarely endorsed by anyone. Next week he comes face to face with the new Congress and the American people, whom they respresent, to explain the state of the union. Nor does the Vice President, nor the Secretary of State, nor the Attorney General. The Vice President faces the probability of public testimony at the trial of his former Number One staffer. And the Secretary of State and the Attorney General both faced withering oversight questioning by Congressional committees, chaired by invigororated Democrats.

Party leadership - The founding fathers did not operate with political parties. For more about this, "Founding Fathers: Political Party Affiliation," by Concord Learning Systems, is an excellent historical article about this fact. A shorter version is contained in this State Department article on the founding fathers called "Political Parties."

The art of leadership - Most searches on "leadership theory" do not focus on governing leadership, but on organizational leadership. Bennet Simonton's "Leadership Skills - Become an exceptional manager of people,of one person or thousands" is typical. This Airwar College Website, "Leadership Theory, Models and Tools," is a possible exception.

"South by Southwest" - My posts on leadership since the election: