This was written post election, pre inauguration at that time when speculation about Trump’s soon to begin Presidency was rampant on FaceBook.
A friend on Facebook brought up the question “Is Trump a bully?”
First I’d like to say that being a bully is a personality trait. A part of Trump’s existence.
Why or where or whether good or bad isn’t what I’m going to blog about.
Depending on your political viewpoint the last 8 years have been either good times or a time where life became a swamp, an unpleasant drudge of increasing burdens.
Notice I didn’t say which one it was?
Because: the topic of this post will be about what type of leadership is needed to make changes from where we are now to where we want to go.
A President’s personality can definitely effect how successful they are at accomplishing goals.
Reagan was a delegator. He would decide what needed done and assign someone the job, like Ollie North.
But Reagan’s lack of supervision (perhaps) caused him a bit of strife. And no, I’m not taking sides here, either. Inadequately supervised minions can get you into strife.
Then there was Jimmy Carter. Thought of by many as a “stupid peanut farmer” but in reality was a retired nuke sub commander. Carter’s management style was micromanaging everything, which is a good style for a nuke sub commander.
If you have ever had a micromanaging boss you know what I mean.
During the Iranian hostage crisis that plagued the last year of his Presidency he decided to mount a rescue mission to free the hostages in the US Embassy in Iran.
In all the secret preparations for the mission somehow the sand filters on the helicopters got left off. Flying a jet engine powered ‘copter at ground scraping altitude over sandy desert without the sand filters…
Well both ‘copters crashed within miles of starting the mission. Luckily there were no injuries but of course the mission failed and the Iranians were now aware that a rescue mission had been attempted.
Perhaps in the name of secrecy the helicopter maintenance crew weren’t informed there would be low level flight over sand
Now Carter may not have been been directly responsible for the cock up but then again, it isn’t a good career move to second guess the Commander In Chief.
This long discourse was to make one point. Sometimes a President’s management style (POTUS is a manager) sometimes fails. But the same style works in other areas.
Getting back to Trump (I know, finally) he may well be a bully but my question is Does America need a bully at this time?
Trump wasn’t even in office yet and he had to oppose fellow Republicans that were trying to dismantle the Ethics Committee.
So Donald tweets and the Republicans cease and desist.
If Trump had waited until after his inauguration the damage to the Ethics Committee may have been fatal.
In my opinion we may need a bully. Someone who doesn’t cave when people complain about his cutting back on bloated entitlements that are bankrupting the country.
And complain they will when their freebee gets cut
Trump is a deal maker. A bully, yes. I’d agree. But maybe a bully, someone who can knock heads together to get things done, is exactly what America needs.
And maybe, subconsciously, the electorate knew that
