American politics | #BlameTrump

The Buck Stops

Well, it used to stop in the Oval Office. No more.

President Harry Truman had the famous sign on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. “The buck stops here”.

That’s the way leadership works. You can pass the buck all you want as a junior manager, but the hard decisions still have to be made, and if nobody makes them, the enterprise flounders, directionless and unstable.

With the American president as chief executive, the hard questions flow upwards. There are no easy questions left to answer because someone lower down has already answered them.

There’s no passing the buck beyond the President.

Until now

America has a leader who doesn’t accept blame. Oh, sure, he’ll take credit for someone else’s work, but when something goes wrong, or there’s a tough job needs doing, where’s Trump?

Gone golfing

The impact of Covid-45 has been a case in point. The nations that have fared well understood the problem, gained expert advice and acted quickly. Lockdowns, quarantines, border closures, business, and travel shutdowns, wearing masks, hand sanitizers — these are effective and successful measures.

But in Trump’s America, there was nobody making the important decisions, and it all happened too little, too late, too piecemeal. Trump told the people it was no big deal, it would be over by Easter. Yeah. Right.

The thing is, leadership is about responsibility, and a leader who just issues orders and hopes for the best is no sort of leader.

A real leader makes the big decisions, and when things go wrong — as they will from time to time — they stand up and accept the responsibility. If not for themselves, but on behalf of the team they lead.

Think about leadership, my American friends. Think about whether you want a man who doesn’t lead or one who does.

Britni