From
FDR to Feeling the Bern: Has Leadership Come Full Circle?
Today, a
reflective walk down memory lane brings alive numerous conversations with
beloved grandparents abut famous fireside chats and radio remarks that sought
to comfort and embrace a crippled country. Parents of this generation would
find the same qualities in the fourth United States’ President to lose his life
to an assassin’s bullet. The Gipper brought “Morning to America” once more;
and, today, millennials prefer to ‘Feel the Bern”. Obolensky (2010) states, “We
hold our leaders account more now than we have done” (p. 4). A statement with
which many may agree; however, as Obolensky (2010) observes, our view of
leadership has changed little since the days of Egyptian pharaohs; yet, our
knowledge; and, the technology that has delivered that knowledge has changed
dramatically in the few short decades since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR)
fireside chats and today’s arena’s filled with Bernie Sanders’ supporters.
Given the sweeping governmental programs instituted by FDR and those offered by
Sanders, it is perhaps easy to see how the leadership pendulum is preparing to
swing once again.
According
to Yukl (2013), “Leaders… care about people as well as economic outcomes, and
they have a longer-term perspective with regard to objectives and strategies”
(p. 6). Listen to anyone from FDR’s era and those grandparents will tell
stories as did mine. As outlined by A & E Networks (2016a), FDR took office
at a time when twenty-five percent of the nation’s workforce was without work.
A collection of experimental programs, collectively known as the “New Deal”,
had as its primary purpose the daunting task of restoring “dignity and
prosperity” to Americans (A&E, 2016a). Sound familiar? These governmental programs
would forever change the relationship with the American people and the federal
government; one, that asked what the government could do for me, and, one that
would be later questioned (A&E, 2016).
The
generation born to those who came to rely on those fireside radio chats to bring
national and world news into their living rooms would watch news delivered by
trusted anchors, like Cronkite, amidst a storm of black and white snow,
complete with revolving, horizontal lines. Those who gave birth to the
baby-boomers, elected the first Catholic as our leader, President John F.
Kennedy. He led the Nation’s race to the moon and in his televised inaugural address,
he challenged the next generation to ask what they could do for their country.
Obolensky (2010) notes “the more we know, the less certain we are” (p. 16).
Kennedy’s administration saw the height of uncertainty between the U.S. and the
then U.S.S.R. We had emerged as a nation that had resoundingly defeated Nazism
and had survived a Great Depression; yet, the quest for “nuclear weapons
delivery” brought about levels of uncertainty resulting in horrific tragedies,
such as the death of the crew of Apollo I and the days of uncertainty with
Apollo 13; and, still American taxpayers were convinced of the need to go to
the moon (p. 17). We lived in Port St. John, Florida at the height of the Apollo Space Missions. I saw how vested my parents were in their leader.
Baby
boomers turned right and agreed with Reagan; we need not return to the economic
disaster known as the Carter Administration where wearing a sweater, as opposed to increasing the thermostat was not only encouraged; it was seen as brilliant. I must say, Archie Bunker's raspberry to Carter captured the sentiment is a succinct way all understood. Although Kennedy’s speech had been
broadcast and folks turned on black and white televisions across the country;
by the time the Reagan Revolution was in full swing, the technology of color
television enhanced Reagan’s leadership style. He brought Madison Avenue in,
assembled a “Tuesday Team”; and, “Morning Again in America” was born (A&E, 2016b).
The imagery of skydivers, equipped with red, white, and blue parachutes,
streaking across a pale, blue California sky, while the leader of the
free-world spoke, only served to enforce the image that America needed to
return to the days of yore, when we as a country did not question our self; or,
our leaders (A&E, 2016b). Borrowing a line from Enigma, a “return to innocence”,
is the underpinning of today’s “Make America Great Again”, trumpeted by
millions. The next generation will write the pages of history to see if Bernie
Sanders self-avowed socialist policies bring us full circle to the days of FDR;
or, return us as that city shining on a hill.
Bernie
Sanders filled arenas with promises of free everything, including the kitchen sink.
Trump promises trade that is fair to the U.S.; and, Mexico will build the wall. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat have taken politics and remarks from leaders into the twenty-first century. The very volley of left and right promises underscores that which Obolensky
first notes, “leadership is mainly seen as something ‘done’ by the few to the
many” (p. 18). Today, that volley is captured by a host of twenty-four-hour
news stations owned by a collective few. We have had forty-four U.S. Presidents
since the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Radio brought FDR into our
living rooms. Black and white televisions captured a mourning nation. I still
recall my mother sobbing as Kennedy’s funeral procession passed. Reagan’s
ability to use the advanced technologies of the 1980s forever sealed images of
Dukakis in an army tank and Carter’s sweater initiative into the fabric of
Americana. Today, YouTube allows millennials to ask again what the government will do for them. Sadly, we view our President as we viewed Ramesses the Great, a
single, powerful leader who can change our plight, our economic path, our
weaponry advancement, and even our national conversation with one well-written
and choreographed speech.
As an
observer of politics, there is a sea change; yet, there is more of a clash of
political ideology than I can recall. The ‘everyone gets a trophy’ generation
are quite comfortable with the programs of Sanders; while others recognize that
neither Kennedy nor Reagan would be welcomed by their respective political parties,
today. My grandparents and parents always reinforced nothing in this world is
free; but, free college and health care sound great to a generation who find
difficulty in coping with the inability to locate the Pokémon Go creature of
the day. Yukl (2013) defines leadership as a process designed to influence others
such that understanding and agreement as to what must be done to address needs
and how “facilitating individual and collective efforts” can be accomplished so
that shared objectives may be achieved (p. 7). While my view of political
leadership has remained as stagnant as the mummies in the Valley of the Kings;
the one-hundred and eighty-degree weather vane swing our nation seemingly
experiences every four or eight years stems from that which Obolensky (2010)
sites as an important ingredient for adaptive leadership, an appreciation of
Tao and the balanced connection that exists between the extreme right and left
of leadership.
References
A&E Networks. (2016a). New Deal. History.com. Retrieved from
http://www.history.com/topics/new-deal
A&E Networks. (2016b). Ronald Reagan Videos: Moring in
America. History.com.
Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/ronald-reagan/videos/morning-in-america
Obolensky, N. (2010). Complex
Adaptive Leadership. (2nd ed.). London, UK: Gower/
Ashgate.
Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in Organizations. (8th
ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
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