Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
Excerpt from A new book by Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney
Had Enough?
Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s
happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming
bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship
of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing
us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less
build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits
around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the
course.”
Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is
America, not the
damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker,
and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize
this country anymore. The President of the
United States is given a
free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us
to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by
passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don’t need
it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but
the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the
Middle
East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press
is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the
promise of
America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean
for. I’ve had enough. How about you?
I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re
not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, “Lee, you’re eighty-two
years old. Leave the rage to the young people.” I’d love to-as soon
as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get
them to pay attention. I’m going to speak up because it’s my
patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a
reputation as a straight shooter. So I’ll tell you how I see it,
and it’s not pretty, but at least it’s real. I’m hoping to strike a
nerve in those young folks who say they don’t vote because they
don’t trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey,
America,
wake up. These guys work for us.
Who Are These Guys, Anyway?
Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in
Washington? Well, we voted for them-or at least some of us did. But
I’ll tell you what we didn’t do. We didn’t agree to suspend the
Constitution. We didn’t agree to stop asking questions or demanding
answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free
speech treason. Where I come from that’s a dictatorship, not a
democracy.
And don’t tell me it’s all the fault of right-wing Republicans or
liberal Democrats. That’s an intellectually lazy argument, and it’s
part of the reason we’re in this stew. We’re not just a nation of
factions. We’re a people. We share common principles and ideals.
And we rise and fall together.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and
make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute
party of
Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party
of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices
of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where
have all the leaders gone?