Other news clips picking up on this statement were available as well, but the clip really speaks for itself.
I'm impressed.
I may have nothing good to say about anyone who wants to engage in politics, on general principles, and I may have no further contextual knowledge about Kristi Noem or anything else she may have done, but on the strength of this clip alone, she distinguishes herself significantly, above nearly everyone else in her field, standing out as a (pretty lonely) example of what an actual leader sounds like. Here, she appears to be:
- Someone who understands that the people she leads are worthy of respect.
- Someone who acknowledges that there are limits to her power--and who considers herself bound by them.
- Someone who neither panders nor condescends to her audience.
My god, it's like she appears to be a human being, or something.
I happen to think that it's a tragic flaw, in much of humanity, to insist--despite the evidence of all of human history--on having "leaders" in the first place. It makes me a heretic, I know; insert here whatever joke you may think passes for a witty and clever rejoinder. (I've heard 'em all.) But hey, let's get real; on a practical level, I'm quite aware that I won't likely live a single minute of my entire life without at least one "leader", at some level, laying some sort of claim on me. (Because enough people believe this to be inevitable, so it becomes inevitable. A sort of psychosomatic slavery.)
In such an absurd world, I may still bristle at the idea of having "leaders" out there, on principle, but that does not mean that I can't recognize better from worse. Which means I can say, unequivocally, that if our "leaders" were more like Kristi Noem as she is in this clip, the world would be the better for it.
Nearly incomprehensibly better.
4 comments:
I'm constantly pointing out to government-supremacists that politicians aren't leaders; they are rulers. If you allow yourself to be "led" by a politician you probably deserve to topple over the cliff they are shoving you toward.
Still, that South Dakota ruler at least gives lip-service to knowing her place in this situation-- unlike so many others.
Right with ya, Kent. (Hope all is well with you and yours, during these tiresome times. My 4yo boy is just about ready for Indy-Pindy. :-)
As of this writing, it sounds as if Noem has since come under predictable attack for being insufficiently-authoritarian-and-thus-making-the-rest-of-us-look-bad, and...from the look of it, she seems to be holding up reasonably well, in the face of the fecal flingery.
The true problem, of course, is that the people really don't have the choice of whether or not to have a leader, but given the flawed world we actually inhabit (which imposes one by force), she continues to seem pretty refreshing as a significantly-less-harmful occupant of the role. Hell, sometimes she even seems like someone with actual leadership skills that people might actually follow, you know, voluntarily. (I know, I used the "V" word...must be in need of re-education again.)
She is still doing a good job but catching a lot of flak from Native American community.
Interesting observation, bolomk1--not something I've picked up on from up here. What's the principal objection from the Natives?
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