Looking for Leaders in Modern America
Following a month-long recess, members of Congress returned to Washington last week to begin the legislative sprint toward November's midterm elections. With so many political pundits predicting doom and gloom for the GOP this November, it appears that Congressional Republicans plan to spend the next few weeks concentrating on the issue that has been their silver bullet in past elections—national security. While no one can doubt the importance of national security legislation, Congress needs to show the American people that it can walk and chew gum at the same time.
In the short amount of time that Congress will be in session this fall (they will recess early so that members can campaign for re-election), there are many issues beyond national security that demand their attention. For example, in spite of the public's desire for action, immigration reform remains stalled in the Congress. This inaction leaves our borders wide open, our public systems financially strained, and our homeland vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Additionally, undoubtedly qualified judicial nominees continue to languish in the Senate, with no definitive timetable for the up-or-down vote the Constitution requires they receive. Lastly, yet another Congressional session appears set to close without significant progress on the pro-life community's many priorities. On issue after issue, the public is demanding action, but their demands appear to be falling on deaf ears.
Approving the Pentagon's budget, currently Congress' top priority, will be a far easier task than debating immigration reform, confirming judicial nominees, or advancing the pro-life agenda this election year. But the voting public did not send members of Congress to Washington to stroll down "easy street". The public is craving leadership. Increasingly, voters are left wondering where all the leaders have gone. Are there any Washingtons or Jeffersons or Lincolns among us? Do we have political leaders today who would literally put their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor on the line for the benefit of the Republic and its people?
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Sadly, it appears that too few of our political leaders today are willing to "risk it all" to do the right thing. For many the highest value seems to be the perpetuation of power or the advancement of partisan political advantage. After all, determining what's right in a post-modern world is tricky business. Right and wrong are not easy to define in an age of relativism. It all depends. Hence, the easiest way to become a leader and accrue power is to find a parade and get out in front of it. That's why polls now occupy such a preeminent place in American politics.
Some have said that a nation gets the leaders it deserves and that what happens at the macro level is just a reflection of what has been going on at the micro level. There is a lot of sad truth to be found in such sentiments. Over the last several decades, Americans have increasingly mocked notions of absolute truth. We have embraced the idea that all that we can know is that which can be objectified and quantified and verified. Those who extol absolute truth and eternal virtues are marginalized as "backwoods, Bible pounding bigots", or members of the "American Taliban". Such creatures are deemed to be a threat to democratic values and a "pluralism" that has become confused with moral relativism.
Ours is not the first age to make this mistake. C. S. Lewis in his book, The Abolition of Man, acknowledged that his generation made the same mistake—and paid dearly for it. Lewis observed, "We make men without chests, and we expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor, and we are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."
Over the next several weeks, members of Congress have the opportunity to turn the page on our leader-less times. Who among them will be willing to carry the banner? Who will demand that the national legislature respond to the crises facing our nation? Wide open borders are too important to be put on the back burner. Reigning in judicial activists and filling judicial vacancies can and should be accomplished now, lest we simply wait for the next disastrous ruling from the federal bench. And as the lives of more and more unborn children are daily terminated, there is no excuse for putting off measures to protect them until a less politically charged moment in time.
Members of Congress should examine themselves, along with the times, and step forward and do what they were elected to do in the first place – lead. And we, the people, should examine ourselves. The answer to our country's lack of leadership is to be found in our midst.
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Ken Connor is Chairman of the Center for a Just Society in Washington, DC and a nationally recognized trial lawyer who represented Governor Jeb Bush in the Terri Schiavo case. Connor was formally President of the Family Research Council, Chairman of the Board of CareNet, and Vice Chairman of Americans United for Life. For more articles and resources from Mr. Connor and the Center for a Just Society, go to http://www.ajustsociety.org/. Your feedback is welcome; please email [email protected].
