Developing real leadership

On Friday, a Spec headline read: “Income gap most extreme in Morningside, Hamilton Heights” (Dec. 2, 2011). Headlines exposing broad societal problems like this are everywhere, and most Americans, distracted by day jobs and countless personal issues, feel helpless in the face of such depressing yet sweeping trends.

What they most need is a strong leader to articulate what they can do, inspire them to do it, and make them feel hopeful again. For all you Columbia students who fancy yourselves presidential aspirants, now is your time to start preparing. A sense of service, sacrifice, personal discipline, ethicality, and humility cannot all be acquired in an instant.

Our current politicians, regardless of party, are impulsive, selfish, self-aggrandizing, and totally lacking in empathy. As a self-identified liberal, I find it somewhat hard to admit that many of the most articulate and forceful advocates of progressive policy in the last decade all rival Gene Simmons and Tiger Woods in libido and lack of impulse control. As much as I support the argument that personal sexual behavior has no bearing on public service, to not consider the public’s reception of such scandals is not only stupid, but also selfish. Assuming Anthony Weiner, for example, had realized that his resignation would mean Congress losing its strongest advocate for universal health care, he would have known that, in moving forward with his web sexcapades, he was placing his bizarre fetish above the medical needs of the American people.

Leaders must be more open with us about their flaws at the outset before they manifest in an implosive scandal. If they speak and write about their fights with drug use, destructive relationships, and lack of personal discipline, public figures actually might provide a road map for young political aspirants trying to fight their own bad habits. No leader is perfect. In fact, if one is to have a concept of evil in society, he must struggle with some inner demons of his own. When politicians deny their imperfections, they only provoke more criticism. Bill Clinton was ceaselessly mocked for claiming that he “didn’t inhale” after being accused of smoking marijuana as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. In contrast, Barack Obama was lauded for his authenticity when he wrote, before being accused, about his cocaine use in “Dreams from My Father” in an analytical, clearly regretful, but deliberately public way.

Future politicians should begin to hone personal discipline and restraint in college (especially in the age of Facebook, when incriminating pictures, posts, and personal information are forever archived online), so that once they achieve a public platform, they can intentionally open up about these issues in a constructive, even inspirational way.

In addition, Capitol Hill is a bubble that envelopes our impressionable politicians, only adding to the leadership deficit. Before his presidency, Obama was a community organizer for Chicago’s Developing Communities Project, even establishing its job-training program. Unfortunately, as president, he has lost himself among a sea of elite, inside-the-Beltway aides and cabinet members whose experiences are disconnected from the plight of the poor and unemployed.

Columbia-student political hopefuls should thus anticipate, if elected, to feel intimidated by Washington elites who possess an impressive insider’s knowledge, especially when it is matched by an utter obliviousness to the problems of the average American.

The final cause of America’s leadership void is the perversion of our presidential race. Nowadays, candidates won’t run serious campaigns, but rather personal publicity tours, establishing name brands and capitalizing on their newfound fame to make money. Among these opportunists are people like Herman Cain and Sarah Palin. Since Palin’s VP bid, she has written a book, become a Fox correspondent, starred in her own reality TV show, toured the country on a “freedom bus,” and in the process bankrolled her egregiously expensive leather jackets and designer sunglasses. It’s as if our politicians are the Paris Hiltons and Kim Kardashians of the political world—turning a cheap profit from the undue fame they have achieved as a result of simply running.

These Republicans are far off from candidates past, who possessed humility and a sense of service—such as former Columbia and United States president Dwight Eisenhower. Maybe it’s our school system that is perverting the presidential bid into a personal branding venture. With extremely low acceptance rates, colleges force high schoolers to run for student government simply as a résumé boost. In other words, a precedent is set that politics can be cynically used as a launchpad for personal success rather than a means of sacrificially serving a higher cause.

Maybe our citizenry is inherently apathetic and helpless. Maybe the poverty gap in Morningside Heights cannot be closed. But I reject these conclusions. They are as generalizing and scary as they are defeatist and easy. Our problems and politics consist of nothing more than ourselves, the leaders who arise from our ranks, and the ones we choose to elect. Many current Columbia students have the capacity to lead. I hope I have exposed a few pitfalls they can avoid along the way.

Jesse Michels is a Columbia College sophomore majoring in history. He is a member of the debate team, CUSP, and intramural basketball and dodgeball. Politics as Pertinent runs alternate Tuesdays.