America’s calloused leaders

Although Wall Street jived its way upward last week at news the economy had expanded healthily in the third quarter, Main Street America refuses to dance in the streets.

Part of the reason for America’s shortfall in hope, explains Peggy Noonan, is that people no longer trust their leaders, and the numbers and facts that flow from them. “Among the things swept away in 2008 was public confidence in the experts,” she writes.

This is not a minor problem.

The biggest threat to America right now is not government spending, huge deficits, foreign ownership of our debt, world terrorism, two wars, potential epidemics or nuts with nukes. The biggest long-term threat is that people are becoming and have become disheartened, that this condition is reaching critical mass, and that it afflicts most broadly and deeply those members of the American leadership class who are not in Washington, most especially those in business.

When crises occurred in the past, explains Noonan, Americans always felt there was a path through the problem. They might have disagreed over which solution was best—Democrat or Republican—but there was always a solution. Today Americans are growing hopeless because they don’t see anyone, Republican, Democrat or otherwise, with a clear path through our troubles.

[Our leaders] are not offering a new path, they are only offering old paths—spend more, regulate more, tax more in an attempt to make us more healthy locally and nationally. And in the long term everyone—well, not those in government, but most everyone else—seems to know that won’t work. It’s not a way out. It’s not a path through.

America’s leaders are out of touch with reality. They are calloused to the worries of the American people. The people see it, and they’re disheartened—even scared. It truly is a terrifying state to be in. Not only are major crises besieging the United States—the soaring debt, the unraveling economy, the increasingly hostile world—but America’s leadership, Democrat and Republican, is impotent and solutionless. The United States today, as the Prophet Isaiah wrote about, is a headless nation.

To appreciate the importance of quality leadership in national success, read “The Death of Churchillian Leadership.”