I’m not a fan of leaders who point fingers, play the blame game or play the victim card. What can I say, I don’t like cry babies.
It’s bad enough to see any adult act like a whiny child. When a a business or political leader does it, it’s nauseating. It’s like saying, “I’ll take the money, the power and the perks, but not the accountability.”
You can’t have it both ways. At least you shouldn’t. Certainly not a CEO … or a President.
I thought it was disgusting when Hillary Clinton blamed everyone but herself for running a lousy campaign and handing Donald Trump the election in 2016. Likewise, the past four years of #resist and #notmypresident have been shameful.
That sort of thing should never happen or be tolerated in this country.
I feel the same way about how President Trump has handled his campaign and the results of the 2020 election. His actions of late have incited and ignited an already unstable and fractured nation reeling from a pandemic and social unrest.
Don’t get me wrong. The “mostly peaceful” protests that turned into rioting, vandalizing, burning and murdering in major cities across the nation for months were practically romanticized by the media and the democrats. The Capitol breach was one single event and everyone’s having a cow. The hypocrisy on the left knows no bounds.
All that said, at some point somebody needs to be the adult in the room and quit making things worse. God knows there’s plenty of blame to go around. But today, I’m going to heed my own words and not play that game.
Look, I get it. If it weren’t for the pandemic, Trump would have sailed to a second term. But that’s not reality. And if the left somehow took advantage of the situation, it’s hard to argue that the party in power did not have the same opportunity or at least the opportunity to handle it better than it did.
In 2016 the Trump team simply ran a better campaign. Clinton shot herself in the foot by running an insular campaign, ignoring the fly over states, acquiescing to being unlikable and of course the notorious basket of deplorables comment.
And I never quite understood how the left could cry foul about Russian interference. After all, the democrats were the party in power. Election integrity was on them, not the GOP.
I’m no political strategist but I do know something about leadership and communications. For months now it’s been clear to me that Trump made very different but similarly unforced errors leading up to the 2020 election. Frankly, I think he ran a lousy campaign that cost him the presidency and may very well have cost republicans the senate as well.
If the opposition somehow managed to take advantage of the pandemic and manipulate the election — I’m not saying they did, mind you — that, in my view, is also on the republicans as the party in power.
I don’t care who you supported in either election. Turnabout is fair play. It works both ways.
If you’ve ever been in a courtroom or involved in litigation you know that you get your day in court. Sometimes you also get an appeal. After that, you’re done. End of story.
If you can’t accept the results and blame everyone but yourself then you need to look in the mirror and try to figure out why you’re acting like a whiny child instead of a mature adult.
That’s as true for political leaders as it is for business leaders as it is for anyone in any kind of dispute or debate, legal or otherwise.
I said more or less the same thing back in 2017 and now I’m going to say it in 2021. What’s good for the Clinton is good for the Trump. Nobody likes to lose. Grow the f— up and get over it.
Image credit Alice Carrier / Flickr