We are just at the beginning of the race for the White House and already fatigue is setting in for me. The reason for this fatigue is simple: I don't see real leadership happening anywhere at the top of the ticket. As a believer, I know what true leadership looks like. It would rather face crucifixion than lie or grasp at power. It would not lie or worse yet shave the truth by insinuation on tangential issues. It would call people to account (in language that could be taken as offensive) at the heart of the matter. We, as a nation, lack leadership like this. We, as a nation, lack the courage to call our leaders to account for being men that snivel over tax returns and sound bites (both sides are doing this). We lack this courage, I believer, because we are like them. We have become a petty people and our politics matches our own pettiness. The present campaign sort of reminds me a two eighth graders going at in a tit for tat in the back of a bus away from adult supervision. All of this is highly comedic, of course, but is is troubling to think that this is how we are going to choose the leader of our nation at this crucial time. It is sort of mindboggling.
Sometimes our youths are criticized for being cynical and politically disinterested. I see their point. Why invest yourself in trusting in and support candidates who would do the most petty and coarse things simply to retain power. We should all gag on it. The youth (smart enough to avoid gagging) simply pass over it.
This, again, highlights the importance of a classical and Christian education. Classical education furnishes us with numerous examples of great leadership as we study history: Pericles, Leonidas, David, Moses, Augustine, Constantine, Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Henry V, Elizabeth I, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Prince Albert, Churchill, Thatcher and ultimately Christ. We need to teach young men and women about these people mainly because we need to convince them that real leadership can and has (and can again) exist. This is the first step in beginning to hold our leaders accountable to be like this great men and women. Today, they do not meet that standard.
