Political Party Fairness

Fairness Is Not Democratic or Republican

By Roy D. Follendore III

January 14, 2002

Our President of the United States was totally unprepared for taking responsible control of the crisis of September 11th, 2001. He was new. He was walking in the footprints of his father. He had not yet gotten his identity as a President. The election which got him to the office was flawed. The former President did nothing to help him. George W. Bush was still relying on his army of advisors to tell him what to do. When September 11th hit, they advised Air Force One to fly to a cave for reasons of personal security. Of course they did. But that does not mean that he had to take their advice.

I understand why he took their advice. In his place, I certainly would have because I would not understand who and what to trust. But I also would have immediately began thinking about the perspective and agenda of my trusted advisors. The problem with being the President is not that you are the boss of everyone. The problem is that you are responsible for the making of history. You serve everyone. A Private in the Army salutes Officers, but the General salutes everyone.

Our President has been making some huge mistakes and not one critic has been willing to stand up and speak their minds. That is the power of the American President in a National crisis. I happen to think that George W. Bush is a good man. I think that Gore is a good man and would have made a good President. But I voted for President Bush because I got it from a person that I respect and who knows him first hand that he is a "good guy" and will do his best. I voted Republican because I had had enough of the Democratic perspective. It was time to clean up some issues. The Democrats got to where they thought they owned the American perspective. Well they didn't. And neither do the Republicans.

Mr. Bush is our man. He is a human being. He has failings. But sitting in that oval office, he is a man that must use and understand his human failings to come into his own. If as President, he tries to govern through war then he will be creating war. He must learn to create options where there are none. Kennedy learned this lesson with Cuba and now George W. must learn this. It is time to rebuild the American economy President Bush. It is time to throw off the advisors and become your own man, and the President of both the Republicans and Democrats.

The secret of being President is understanding the limitations of the Presidency. The Executive Office of the President is too small to govern every important detail of the Federal Government. It is not just politically impossible, it is mathematically impossible. The party line of any Presidency can not be absolutely enforced on a huge bureaucracy. If I could say one thing to George W. Bush right now, I would say; Mr. President, your political advisors need to be cast aside not because they got you where you are, but because you are there. The way to lead and act in concert with the bureaucracy is simply to put fair minded people in charge and act as a fair minded President.

Fairness is not a Democratic or Republican invention. It is a human convention. But war is by its nature unfair. The conflict that will inevitably occur within the bureaucracy is brewing. When it surfaces it will arise from inefficiencies and inadequacies. It will surface as economics, and it will be perceived as systemic failure though the results will be political.

So fairness is just as much about keeping the organs of the President on an even keel as it is about doing the right thing and becoming who you should be to lead the American nation.

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