Recently, I wrote an article about the kind of leaders America needs. I suggested that we need leaders (1) who know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil; (2) who love the country and will protect and defend it; (3) who have moral virtue to whom others, especially youth, can look up to; (4) who have great character strength and the wisdom to know the difference between lasting truth and current fads, who will exalt the former and moderate the latter; (5) who are economically frugal and will not waste money on useless trivialities; (6) who are humble, recognizing they do not have all the answers, and thus constantly seek the guidance of a Higher Wisdom; (7) who can control their tongues and speak elevating words of prudence, verity, and excellence. I stand by every one of those points.
And I see very little of any of that in American politics today.
But there is one further point that was recently brought to my attention about leadership. A very poignant observation by a reader: what happens after a “leader” has moved on?
This discerning individual used Florida and Ron DeSantis as an example. Florida was purple for a long time, and has now, largely because of DeSantis and the kind of people he attracts to his state, become deep red. But what will happen after DeSantis is gone? What will his legacy be? Will his influence outlast him?
What will his “children” be like?
This may have been part of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s thought process regarding keeping DeSantis in Florida and not wanting him to run for the presidency in 2024. He is an outstanding governor; we need Republican governors like him in every state. If he moves out of Tallahassee and into Washington, what will happen to Florida? That’s the question my perceptive reader was concerned about.
Do we lose Florida if we gain Washington?
In this case, the whole is more important than one part, but it would still be a tragic loss, if Florida were to slip back into the hands of Democrats. We may never get Washington again if that happens.
So, the question is, what kind of leader is Ron DeSantis? Really? Will his legacy in Florida be years of Republican rule? Or is it fly-by-night and fleeting?
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Yet, there is something of far greater gravity than this. We must NOT succumb to the error of believing that politicians are our first, or best, leaders. The Democratic Party believes Washington and political power is everything. That is their cardinal mistake and why they are causing so much damage to the nation. Their every action is based upon that principle. It is imperative we not fall into that trap.
Leadership begins at home, in the family, the supreme institution in any civilized society. The true measure of successful parenthood is what their children are like, especially after they leave home. Parents, contrary to what Democrats believe, are the most important “leaders” in any nation. They raise and civilize—or don’t—the next generation of citizens, and if they do it poorly, then it really won’t matter who the governor or president is. If you have rotten people, you are going to have a rotten country and a rotten government. And every bit of that starts with the family, not in Washington, D.C.
What the Democratic Party has done to the American family is, by far, the greatest crime in the history of our country.
Children who have been taught well by their parents will make strong, law-abiding, hard-working, patriotic citizens. Parents who fail…well, Washington, or Tallahassee, can’t do much with poorly raised human debris.
The tragedy of tragedies is when a nation has “leaders” like Joe Biden, who from their lofty posts, do everything they can to undermine what good parents are trying to accomplish. Who reward vice and punish virtue. Who exalt hedonism and perversity, and attack honor, purity, and uprightness. Who subsidize lies and sloth, instead of demanding decency, good character, and honesty.
Joe Biden knows absolutely nothing about noble leadership. Whoever “taught” him was an utter, complete failure.
The best civic leaders support parents in their attempts to bring up worthy children, to raise them to greater heights, and point them to virtuous selflessness, to excellence, not ego.
Is that what Joe Bide is doing?
The best leaders don’t teach people that human life is valueless, that adultery and dishonesty are equal to purity and trust, and that children can be destroyed for sexual pleasure at the whim of human waste, of deviant, self-absorbed degenerate sewer-dwellers.
What is Joe Biden doing?
The best leaders don’t lie repeatedly and build their policies on falsehoods, just for political gain. That isn’t a lesson a country should be teaching its youth. Parents don’t want their children learning that.
Joe Biden?
It is difficult enough for parents to raise honorable offspring. And it becomes exponentially more difficult when the leadership in government exemplifies the exact opposite of everything good parents want their children to learn, and a civilized society NEEDS them to learn.
How did the Democratic Party sink to such depths of utter, monstrous depravity?
What will Joe Biden’s legacy be?
What will Ron DeSantis’s legacy be in Florida?
RDS can’t do it all by himself. Nobody can. But he can set the proper example. He can give unwavering support to true leaders, in families, who are attempting to educate their children towards excellence and virtue. He can train government officials below him so that, when he is gone, those leaders who follows him will know how to lift society to excellence, purity, and honor.
I think RDS gets it. He better. Republicans everywhere have to. Because the Democratic Party certainly shows absolutely no signs of elevating itself out of the slime pit it is in and to human decency and nobility.
Christmas is coming! Thanksgiving and cold weather, too. Get some good reading material to tide you over. My western novels, Whitewater and River Bend, are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Eliva.com. A third western, Allie’s Dilemma, is available for Kindle only. And read some different posts on my blog at thailandlewis.blogspot.com.
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