Bad Leadership Choices Are Common
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/us/politics/trump-felon-presidency.html?searchResultPosition=1
Two of my favorite excuses used by Trump supporters for his bad behavior and terrible choices are whataboutism and “the people have made their choice.”
Whataboutism is when people say yes, Trump did that or Trump said that, but what about what the Democrats did or said.
Whataboutism is moral relativism personified and of no consequence to me. The many indictments of Mr. Trump, the least substantive of which was the one upon which he was convicted in New York, indicate to me that he’s just a bad guy. He instigated a riot, tried to undo a legitimate election (I don’t care that half the country thought it was illegitimate, the data say it was just fine), and stole secret documents, kept them in Mar A Lago and wouldn’t give them back when he was requested to do so. That he may never be prosecuted for any of that is of no matter to me. I saw his speech on January 6 and know that the insurrection was well-planned. He’s not innocent. I heard the phone call with the official in Georgia. He tried to find 11,000+ votes. I saw the documents in his house. I don’t need a trial, but would have liked one in each case.
As for the fact that Trump won in 2024 negating his crimes, that’s horse hockey. He won because the people wanted change, the opposing candidate was dreadful and illegitimate herself, and the country is leaning so far right the possible outcomes are starting to become concerning.
In this article from The New York Times’ Peter Baker on January 13, it is evident that the majority of Americans don’t care if their president is a felon. I think most Americans assume most leaders of most things are crooked. Surely that is true of big business executives and the leadership of other countries. Both have been proven unworthy many times over on the past. Why should the White House be any different?
You also have to realize that the New York case in which Mr. Trump was convicted and sentenced was the weakest of the four cases and the one about which no one really cared. I think had the others come to trial, sentiments might have been more varied, but that never happened.
And the New York case is not Mr. Trump’s first conviction. “He was found liable for sexual abuse in one civil case and business fraud in another.” He really is not all that successful a businessman having declared bankruptcy multiple times. He’s famous for not paying his bills and he hangs around with an unsavory crowd (e.g., Jeffery Epstein).
Donald Trump is a fraud who has made ridiculous promises to the American people in order to get elected—just like all politicians do. I will be the most surprised person if he is able to deliver on anything at all given the people he has chosen to have around him.
More than likely, the federal bureaucracy will push back and stop his Cabinet members in their tracks.
The argument that the American people have chosen Trump holds no water with me other than that I agree that is true. That doesn’t make it a good choice although Harris was probably worse.
Now, in reflecting about all of this, I have thought about the many leaders of organizations with whom I have worked over my career. Some have been excellent. Some have been awful. Some have been both, changing over time. That’s sort of the nature of life. Through voting and selecting, groups try to identify people who can lead the organizations for which they are responsible. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.
I’ll even go so far as to include myself in this matrix. I have been a good leader at times and not so good at others. I have even been good at one time and bad at another in the same job. That’s the way it goes. Sometimes your skills and beliefs are a perfect fit. Sometimes, they no longer are.
As for Trump leading the country, we all just have to wait and see, but as to whether or not Donald Trump did some really bad things after the 2020 election, I’ll leave that to history. The answer seems obvious.
2 thoughts on “Bad Leadership Choices Are Common”
As far as good leader at times, bad leader at others…..for yourself, or any of us who had to lead from time to time….reference the Teddy Roosevelt quote about ‘ the man in the arena.’ Of interest, a tangential tact comes to mind from the New Testament, where J.C. was asked, what about the fate of a person who never does anything good, but never does anything wrong either? To which J.C. replied “I will vomit you out of my mouth.”
More earth bound, I recently read a bio of Dwight Eisenhower, who of course was before even our time. As Prez, he had his detractors, in part because he usually played dumb in statements and press conferences, while he was anything but. When Richard Nixon goes on record as saying he “was the most devious president of all”, that’s a pretty certain analysis. Anyway, in 8 years of leadership, yes, Eisenhower was involved with covert interactions in several countries (which individually we can judge), but he only sent US troops abroad one time – to Lebanon in 1958 during a regional crisis to prevent a coup. The troops saw virtually no action, and were largely withdrawn by ~ 6 months. Kennedy fans blame Eisenhower for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, but the truth is that Eisenhower had not and would not sign off on the invasion, as he knew (from extensive experience in WWII, good and bad) that it would not work on it’s own and would require a massive US intervention which he was not willing to do. Kennedy was reluctant, but as a new and inexperienced Prez, was bullied into it by the Jt Chiefs (which he bitterly regretted later). “I hate war, as only a soldier who has lived it can hate it, with all it’s brutality, futility and waste.” – D.E.
True, Eisenhower was not a civil rights leader, but when in 1957 the Arkansas governor refused to integrate under Brown vs Board of Ed, Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and sent in the 101st airborne troops to allow 9 black students to take their classroom seats at Little Rock high school.
So no intention to hijack your thread – just thinking about examples of leadership not so long ago, compared to what we have now. Yikes!!
Great comment. Great info. Thanks for reading. LZ