Dear Friends,
It seems to me, no matter how great an executive is, if he is surrounded by half-wits, clingers, and traitors… he will fail, and fail miserably. This will happen no matter how hard-working, adept, or patriotic he may be. Because all his efforts are filtered through his minions. If he put a crew in to clean up the FBI, for example… and for whatever reason they failed to lift a finger. That executive’s effort will have come to naught. If he put someone in charge of the DOJ to clean it up, but she doubled down on the corruption, protecting the corrupt actors while punishing the good… that executive will be tarred as corrupt no matter how ethical he may be. That happens because an executive is judged by his appointees. Moreover, blundering will ensure his foes win the next election.
Many good leaders are done in by their minions, just as many worthless leaders have been elevated by excellent minions. While the executive determines strategy, minions work out the details. The truth is, details are where things get done… or not. So a despotic, stupid, and unfit leader who is surrounded by active, zealous, and loyal people will succeed. The liberal, smart, and fit leader who surrounds himself with inactive, unbelievers, who are also traitorous will fail. Although one could argue a leader who continuously surrounds himself with traitors, who actively work against his interests and those of the nation… isn’t very smart. He may be patriotic, great at business, and have all the right ideas… but he can only fail and become a pariah for his efforts.
A person who surrounds himself with traitors will soon find a knife in his back. This shows the old adage, keep your friends close and your enemies closer… is stupid. Because a close enemy has access to your back. Plus, a sufficiently emboldened enemy will stab you to death right in the Senate chamber. Perhaps on the ides of March? The wise understand that in most cases, people are self-interested… but in love, aesthetics, and politics emotion runs the show. So the person who is used to people acting in self-interested ways might be flummoxed by people acting in clearly unself-interested ways. History shows that people lose their minds when politics are involved. A devout Marxist may call herself a progressive, postmodernist, or socialist… but regardless of the moniker a zealot can’t be trusted.
An executive who gets power because of his rhetoric, who fails to deliver, will be judged a failure, no matter how hard he tried to keep his word. Because people judge outcomes not intentions. That’s why the progressive faction is on the outs despite monopoly control of the media, courts, bureaucracy, and every other lever of power and information exchange… because they consistently deliver disaster. When the people elect another leader who doesn’t make any difference, whether it’s because he didn’t try or because his own faction and appointees stymied him, he will be judged a failure. No matter how much good he might do by executive order, they will be erased the second he loses power. Without any bureaucratic change or congressional law, everything he does is ephemeral.
A leader who tries to fight a swamp, a bulldozer if you will, usually wades in and disappears below the mud. Often you can’t even see where it sank in a few days. The water has to be drained first. The zealots, money, and institutional rot must be drained away before any executive can hope to clean it up. Wading in and appointing swamp creatures didn’t work. Now wading in and appointing clueless, lazy, grasping people isn’t working either. Meanwhile, the traitors he’s keeping close are sharpening their knives and eyeing his back. Once they have undermined his power enough, they will lament he’s the reason the conservative faction failed in the next election. Yet the reality is, they are snakes, crocs, and flies encouraging the dozer to wade ever deeper into the swamp… from which he will never escape.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
Minions Make The Executive
Dear Friends,
It seems to me, no matter how great an executive is, if he is surrounded by half-wits, clingers, and traitors… he will fail, and fail miserably. This will happen no matter how hard-working, adept, or patriotic he may be. Because all his efforts are filtered through his minions. If he put a crew in to clean up the FBI, for example… and for whatever reason they failed to lift a finger. That executive’s effort will have come to naught. If he put someone in charge of the DOJ to clean it up, but she doubled down on the corruption, protecting the corrupt actors while punishing the good… that executive will be tarred as corrupt no matter how ethical he may be. That happens because an executive is judged by his appointees. Moreover, blundering will ensure his foes win the next election.
Many good leaders are done in by their minions, just as many worthless leaders have been elevated by excellent minions. While the executive determines strategy, minions work out the details. The truth is, details are where things get done… or not. So a despotic, stupid, and unfit leader who is surrounded by active, zealous, and loyal people will succeed. The liberal, smart, and fit leader who surrounds himself with inactive, unbelievers, who are also traitorous will fail. Although one could argue a leader who continuously surrounds himself with traitors, who actively work against his interests and those of the nation… isn’t very smart. He may be patriotic, great at business, and have all the right ideas… but he can only fail and become a pariah for his efforts.
A person who surrounds himself with traitors will soon find a knife in his back. This shows the old adage, keep your friends close and your enemies closer… is stupid. Because a close enemy has access to your back. Plus, a sufficiently emboldened enemy will stab you to death right in the Senate chamber. Perhaps on the ides of March? The wise understand that in most cases, people are self-interested… but in love, aesthetics, and politics emotion runs the show. So the person who is used to people acting in self-interested ways might be flummoxed by people acting in clearly unself-interested ways. History shows that people lose their minds when politics are involved. A devout Marxist may call herself a progressive, postmodernist, or socialist… but regardless of the moniker a zealot can’t be trusted.
An executive who gets power because of his rhetoric, who fails to deliver, will be judged a failure, no matter how hard he tried to keep his word. Because people judge outcomes not intentions. That’s why the progressive faction is on the outs despite monopoly control of the media, courts, bureaucracy, and every other lever of power and information exchange… because they consistently deliver disaster. When the people elect another leader who doesn’t make any difference, whether it’s because he didn’t try or because his own faction and appointees stymied him, he will be judged a failure. No matter how much good he might do by executive order, they will be erased the second he loses power. Without any bureaucratic change or congressional law, everything he does is ephemeral.
A leader who tries to fight a swamp, a bulldozer if you will, usually wades in and disappears below the mud. Often you can’t even see where it sank in a few days. The water has to be drained first. The zealots, money, and institutional rot must be drained away before any executive can hope to clean it up. Wading in and appointing swamp creatures didn’t work. Now wading in and appointing clueless, lazy, grasping people isn’t working either. Meanwhile, the traitors he’s keeping close are sharpening their knives and eyeing his back. Once they have undermined his power enough, they will lament he’s the reason the conservative faction failed in the next election. Yet the reality is, they are snakes, crocs, and flies encouraging the dozer to wade ever deeper into the swamp… from which he will never escape.
Sincerely,
John Pepin