A recent BBC article asked if President Obama is a good leader.
From the piece:
"When you are president, people always need to know what you would do if you were a dictator. What you would do. Not what's possible or the realities of Congress or the limits on your authority.
"What would you do if you were dictator? People don't know that about Obama. And that's a problem. A weakness. And stylistically it is going to be hard for him to get that back."
To be fair, the question was posed by Republican strategist Ed Rogers, hardly an objective or dispassionate source. Interesting how Republicans naturally default to dictatorship, isn't it? But nevertheless I think the question is useful for talking about one's core beliefs and goals. So I asked myself, what would I do as dictator? Three things come immediately to mind:
1. Nationalize the health care industry and implement free universal health care.
2. Implement a progressive taxation system, with a top tax rate for the über-rich of 90%.
3. Institute a social welfare system that provided for a decent minimum standard of living for all citizens.
I imagine President Obama's list might look similar, were he the type to indulge in idle fantasy (which something tells me he is not). But that's part of my frustration with the president -- I have to imagine. For all his skill as a communicator, he has not done a good job of expressing his goals in a clear and direct manner. This has allowed his political enemies to fill the void with whatever paranoid right-wing delusions their Tea-addled minds can cook up. He's a communist. He's a Muslim. He's a baby-killing Nazi socialist Satan worshipper from Kenya. Whatever.
President Obama isn't a dictator, nor would we wish him to be. But one thing about dictators, you know where they stand. I may not like Rick Perry, but I know exactly what his vision for America looks like. Think Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale with cowboy boots.
Rick Perry demonstrates how he would throttle the gay out of America.
I can't always say that I know what the president believes. I am not the first to make this criticism, and to his credit the president seems to be listening. He has been on his game lately, and his rising poll numbers reflect it. Perhaps we are about to see one of the great second acts of American politics. I hope so.
Because if we were to ever get a real dictator it would be from the other side.