Case Study of Modern Politicians: (or the new definition of a Leader)

What follows is not specific to nor uniquely characteristic of Gov. Christie, it appears to be generally applicable to our politician (national and state, democratic or republican, incumbents or aspiring hopefuls).


Politicians are charged with creating the policies and the laws that are necessary to, required by and central to the execution of governing. To fuffil that role it is essential that politicians be able to formulate, explain and lead the public toward a social implementation that delivers on the principles and values of the society that the nation is founded upon delivering. In this regard, leaders are required to lead; a simple but perhaps forgotten concept. The Founding Fathers were leaders. They had positions that they would present, discuss and debate; and they acted upon those positions. Sometimes those positions were accepted as fundamental principles, sometimes they were compromised on with others' views and became the policies that would become part of the societal agreement, and sometimes they were rejected because the particular idea(s) were not in sufficient common agreement that they did in fact represent the leading views of the collective wisdom. In the end, they lead; they put their views and positions before their peers and the public, defended them, and have created for posterity the nation that we have today in our free, democratic and law-based system of government (federal, state, and local).


Would a leader of the Founding Fathers' caliber sit back and wait to see if they were going to run for office before they would speak out on what the nation, the state or they themselves should be doing with respect to an issue of national significance? If you don't have an answer to present, or you don't have sufficient comprehension of the issue or factors that need to be considered, or you don't believe that the issue is important enough to be of concern to a political leader then is it in the nature of a leader to say: "I will have a position if I choose to run." Do leaders have to be running to participate in the political debate and political decision process on an issue?

The question that the public should be asking any politician is: "As a leader do you have anything of import, substance or value to provide to the public, to the political process or to our society that would be important and useful in setting an American understanding of the issue, a value-based perspective that would provide direction to others, or an illustration of how American principles are reflected in what should be done?"