Over the last several decades, it has become popular for public officials to force a pitched philosophical battle upon the American people. Their rhetoric separates Americans from Americans, pits “the 99 percent” against “the 1 percent,” divides “true believers” from those who “believe differently,” classifies Americans as either “ makers” or “takers”, and presents our people with a Hobson’s choice of either ending government service to our citizens or using government to solve everything. As the divisive rhetoric escalated, our people continued to endure declining economic mobility and stagnant wages – two troublesome developments that featured prominent in many campaign messages, though most merely focused on blame instead of offering ideas needed to address these challenges facing our country. This is a failure of leadership – an assault on American unity at the expense of the American family. As a result of this failure, almost four-fifths of Americans no longer believe in the American Dream – the idea that our children, based on their efforts, will have the opportunity to do better than we have done. At this critical stage in our nation’s history, divisive rhetoric is not what we need from our leaders. Americans yearn for a new type of leadership – focused, purposeful, and responsible people in public service who are willing to be held accountable for the actions needed to guide our ship of state through rough seas. We need leaders who will help us restore the American Dream, and can give our nation a sense of direction – and achievable benchmarks – as we strive to get there. During my 31-year career as a leader in the United States Navy, I saw how American leadership is most effective when it embraces the dual tenets of our unique national character: rugged individualism in pursuit of the common mission. Our sailors were each provided the individual opportunity to be all they could be, while valuing having one another’s back because they recognized “they were in it together” in accomplishing their common purpose. It is an approach that brings unity to a mission, not divisiveness. To ensure their individual achievement, we provided every sailor career-long training and education, enabling each of them to contribute fully to our general overall military readiness. And we retained our sailors’ commitment because each had the opportunity to achieve individually the skills he or she valued as their personal contribution. We created ladders of opportunity and our people were brave enough to climb them on their own. Of equal priority is the requirement that those in charge must hold themselves accountable for results – good or bad. If a ship runs aground, even if it is by the fault of other crew members, the captain in command of the ship is rightly held accountable for mistakes within his command. Accountability means answering for oneself; taking responsibility for one’s deeds, not one’s intentions. In government today, too few leaders are – or are willing to be – held accountable for their actions. Accountable leadership gets results and changes cultures because it earns the trust of people who then want to follow. The military’s experience offers a fine example. When I entered the Navy in the midst of the Vietnam War, the military ranked last among our national institutions in the public trust. When I retired over three decades later, it ranked first. This wasn’t just outside changes in geopolitics or the way we deployed our military; rather, it was the changes we made ourselves in the way we assessed plans and measured benchmarks, conducted rigorous oversight, and demanded strict accountability – from our leadership. On this front, the military did an admirable job in the last generation to regain the public’s trust by ensuring that every member of the services – from the most senior flag officer to the most newly enlisted sailor, soldier, marine, airman, or guardsman – is held accountable for his or her actions. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of our political leadership today. After I left the Navy, I went on to serve in Congress and saw that, on the whole, our elected leaders were failing to hold themselves accountable. And that’s why today it is Congress that ranks last among our national institutions in the public’s trust. In Congress, I witnessed firsthand what the American people have already been feeling innately. I watched “shocked” congressmen chide corporate executives for using tax avoidance techniques, while disregarding that it is Congress who writes the codes that so many companies use to avoid taxes. I heard legislators lament about oversight agencies stacked with industry insiders who write rules allowing corporations to fill out their own inspection reports, while failing to acknowledge that the agencies’ rulemaking authority comes from legislation that Congress writes. Too few of our elected officials are willing to hold themselves accountable for the diminishing American Dream. In my time traveling across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I found that people wanted leaders who will figure out what is best for the country based on facts and analysis, plot a course of action, and be held accountable for the results. On the whole, Americans don’t care if we go left or right around an obstacle, they just want us to do it well. The people are not debating about big government versus small government; they just want an effective government. They want a government that gives them the opportunity to apply their innate ability, intellect, ambition, and persistence for their individual achievement, while ensuring a shared investment from our collective resources so that we all might benefit. In short, what I have found is that the American character is based on the same things I saw promoted most rigorously in the Navy and, sadly, so widely written off in Congress – an understanding and an embrace of the alliance between rugged individualism and the common enterprise – the idea that by securing fair individual opportunities for all, we could pursue and safeguard the commonwealth of our county together. And the people want to have a government that balances both through accountable leadership.
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