Leadership

Ruth Marcus, in an op-ed piece in the WaPo, almost asserts without consensus that the problem with the Bush Administration is that it’s a bit too manly.  (I say “almost assert” because assert might be too manly of a word here.) 

This is her penultimate paragraph:

Mansfield writes that he wants to "convince skeptical readers -- above all, educated women" -- that "irrational manliness deserves to be endorsed by reason." Sorry, professor: You lose. What this country could use is a little less manliness -- and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities: restraint, introspection, a desire for consensus, maybe even a touch of self-doubt.

Hmmmm…sense any self-doubt in that statement?  How about restraint?  Did she say this because she reached a consensus with her fellow colleagues?

She does provide a caveat though, or at least a curtsy to introspection and restraint, by ending her diatribe thusly:

But that's just my view

Well it isn’t mine and I really don’t care.  I’m not asking for consensus.  I have no doubts.

When we elect a President, we aren’t electing a committee.  Consensus is fine for deciding where to go for lunch, but it doesn’t work real well trying to get things done - especially in a hurry or in a crisis.   

One of the greatest leaders of the late 20th century was actually a woman, Dame Margaret Thatcher.  This is what she had to say concerning consensus:

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

And:

There are still people in my party who believe in consensus politics. I regard them as Quislings, as traitors... I mean it.

Usually, when we think of a manager, we think of someone (usually a supervisor of some sort) who manages.  They manage the office, they manage certain employees, they mange a budget.  They manage; that’s what they do and they usually manage right into mediocrity.  Management IS mediocrity.

  Ms. Marcus obviously doesn’t know the difference between “manliness” and leadership.  I’m not sure Professor Mansfield does either.  What they call manly isn’t something innate to just men.  Women have the ability to lead as much as men.  Thatcher, and even Hillary Clinton, are leaders.  If you think Hillary will lead by committee if she ever gets elected President, you don’t have a clue.  If you like her, you should think that is a good thing.

In the end, it is the leaders that we consider great.  No one ever built a statue to a committee.

VW