By
Robert Charles
- Bio
- November 12, 2014
So, the Republicans win
big across the United States – regaining control of the U.S. Senate, adding
seats in the U.S. House, capturing new governorships, preserving old ones, and
winning countless (or at least uncounted) dog-catcher posts.
Why? Because the nation
finally realized (as many polls confirm) that “the country is on the wrong
track,” and properly blamed the first uncompromisingly liberal president from
leading us down this dead-end alley.
Now comes President
Obama’s November 5th press conference.
Members of both
parties, and even the White House Press Corps, scratch their heads.
As if living in some
alternate universe, the president seems to run away from the referendum on
himself, rejecting the national repudiation as a misunderstanding, indicating
his message never got out, blaming everyone except himself.
More than this, he
remains locked on the failed track that brought him -- and us -- to this
bizarre impasse in national policy -- instead of recognizing that
Americans do not want higher taxes, a weak defense, more federal control over
their lives, higher healthcare premiums and reduced coverage, and lack of
accountability from the Department of Veterans Affairs to the Internal Revenue
Service, from the State Department to the Pentagon, from the NSA to the DOJ to
the EPA, he just plowed on as if no one had corrected him.
Instead of recognizing
the public’s revulsion from high-handed executive orders, open borders and the
cheapening of American residency and citizenship, indifference to drug crime
and racial division, he doubled, then tripled down.
His press conference
and all utterances since have made him seem not just tone deaf, but
pathologically deaf.
So much so that, far
from expecting compromise, many officials in and out of government, along with
Americans from across the country, party lines, and professions, wonder what is
going on.
The question led me to
two sources, one the Harvard Business Review (HBR), and the other,
history.
Here is my read:
the HBR had a recent article, written by a former CEO, saying that many
executive leaders -- although not presidents -- suffer from a mental condition
called “cognitive dissonance,” in effect denial of reality because it is too
painful.
This led to a spate of
CEO firings -- so the article says -- from 2008 forward.
Right or wrong, the
notion is appealing as a way to explain Obama.
While we cannot fire
him, he seems awash in symptoms, which include: delicate ego, defensiveness,
preoccupation with blaming others, endless efforts to justify beliefs not
supported by facts, inability to properly discern what has happened in the context
of what they believe, weak adaptive skills, and an unwillingness to accept
reality.
Succinctly, HBR
suggests that “cognitive dissonance” is dangerous to a company’s future, since
the CEO becomes unable to see that he must “change his mind” and “unwind bad
business moves.”
How much harder, then,
when it is a country, not a company?
Solution: remind the
CEO that they work for someone, and thus have to change their mind, even if
that involves rethinking roles, limits and beliefs.
Needless to say, many CEOs
get fired because they will not do that.
Now, the history
part. Perhaps the most instructive lesson from history comes from, of all
places, the former Soviet Union -- the famous “two letters.”
When Nikita Khrushchev
departed, he left two envelopes for his successor, Leonid Brezhnev.
Khrushchev also left a
note, which read: “To my successor: when you find yourself in a hopeless
situation which you cannot escape, open the first letter, and it will save
you.
Later, if you again
find yourself in a hopeless situation… open the second letter.”
When the inevitable
first occasion arose, Brezhnev opened the first envelope.
The letter read: “Blame
it all on me.”
Brezhnev did and it
worked, for a time.
When the second
situation arose, Brezhnev opened the second envelope.
It read: “Sit down
and write two letters.”
True or not, this
account comes from the Khrushchev tapes.
So, Mr. Obama, when the
2010 midterm rout occurred, you opened the first envelope -- and blamed
everything on prior Republican leadership.
You have now come to
your second envelope.
While impeachment is
unlikely and America does not enjoy the “vote of no confidence,” as some of our
remaining allies do, there is a choice.
Mr. President, you can
either remain “cognitively dissonant” and hope no one notices, or you can think
hard -- harder than you did for that press conference -- and come to grips with
a difficult, but true fact:
·
our country has turned away from you,
·
away from your vision of expanded government and
dubious “progressivism”,
·
away from the “transformative” politics of terminal
agitation,
·
away from racial division for political gain,
·
away from ceaseless buck-passing blame,
·
and away from insincere and non-substantive
rhetoric.
We are on track again
for:
·
coherent economic and foreign policy,
·
enhanced national security,
·
more opportunity for small businesses (which
generate 80 percent jobs),
·
better protection of sovereign borders,
·
and dignity for all Americans.
We are on this new
track because we are One People, not a thousand different peoples, as you wish
to believe -- or wish for us to believe.
So, think hard.
You can either turn
with us, toward that America which most know, love, and want back -- or you can
wander off into the twilight of your own world.
The good news is
this: If you come with us, you will be part of an America that is proud
of who we are, all of us, a Democracy, not a government bent on “cognitive
dissonance,” rife with preemptive executive orders, lost in a swirl of perfidy,
deception, and denial. America is still here.
Come join us.
Robert B. Charles was
Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former teacher at the Harvard
University Extension School, and is a Washington DC-based consultant.
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