Demographics and Left vs. Right
As the 2020 election draws nearer publicity about the growing political and cultural divide becomes more prominent. The increasing progressive agenda of Democrats certainly bolsters discussion about this division. However, a recent report by the U.S. Census, The Graying of America, suggests that demographics could be more important.
Baby Boomers, people now aged between 55 and 73 years, are driving this significant demographic shift. As they age, this large demographic cohort expands the number of older adults. The Census Bureau projects that in 2030 older Americans, those older than 65, will comprise 21% of the population. This compares with today’s percentage of 15%.… Read the rest
Hubristic Leadership and Trump (1 of 2)
The media most prominently mention narcissism as Trump’s key personality characteristic. I will discuss this topic in a later post. Although Trump’s narcissism influences the way he leads, I think the hubris personality characteristic best explains Trump’s leadership. Unlike narcissism hubris does not have a common, clear definition. Hubris, however, has enough clarity to allow its use in connection with leadership. Hubris also has some similarity to two other concepts found in the leadership literature, core self-evaluation and intuition.
The research literature sees hubris as an acquired personality disorder characterized by recklessness, contempt, and lack of attention to details. This disorder becomes manifest in the holding of largely unfettered power.… Read the rest
Hubris, Trump, and Leadership (2 of 2)
Given the dangers, sometimes very significant, of hubristic decision making and leadership, what can minimize or prevent dangerous overreach by leaders? Unfortunately, the very adverse consequences of hubristic leaders are often not known ahead of time, which makes for a particularly difficult challenge. Also, the past successes of hubristic leaders often make them unwilling or unable to change.
In political circles doubt often becomes a luxury the hubristic leader sees as unaffordable. This adverse belief about doubt becomes compelling when the leader surrounds himself or herself with “yes” persons. Trump faces an especially difficult situation because he operated his real estate and branding businesses as a small family business where he alone made all the key decisions.… Read the rest
Introduction to Part 2 (1 of 2)
In my “outline of posts” page I say this: “The reading and thinking about our polity and society that I have undertaken the last couple of years has made me believe that our current times are significantly precarious, more so than the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. I have gone from a simplistic and perhaps naïve optimism about our country to a view that is at best minimally pessimistic.”
Several considerations generated my move from optimism to at best minimally pessimistic. I now briefly recount these considerations as an introduction to part 2 of my posts, although I have already made a few entries into the second part of my posts’ schema.… Read the rest
Stakeholder Capitalism: Postwar to 1960 (1 of 2)
This post discusses the role played by the business community from postwar to 1960, while the next post discusses business political involvement in the 1960s. Subsequent to these two posts, the following posts treat the role of labor similarly.
The business community from the era of the New Deal to the early ’70s often split in its political and governmental activities. On the one side, the US Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), represented what might be called the ultraconservative business community. On the other side were business moderates, often working under the umbrella of the Committee on Economic Development (CED), which was formed in the early ’40s.… Read the rest
Introduction to Part 2 (2 of 2)
In the first part of this two-part post I discussed one reason for my move from perhaps a naïve optimism to moderate pessimism about today’s polity and society. In this post, I discuss several additional reasons for my change in attitude.
One is the deep, intense political polarization now present in our polity and society. I think it important to differentiate between strong cultural divides or polarizations and our deep political polarization. During the past several decades the country witnessed several significant cultural divisions that were not aimed at or involved specific political parties.
In the 1950s, the Supreme Court’s Brown v.… Read the rest
Labor: Post-WWII to 1960
An earlier post dealt with the role of the business community and national affairs from the end of WWII to 1960. This post focuses on labor and the business community in the same time period.
Full Employment Act
After the removal of WWII price controls as well as the excess profits tax, unions undertook widespread strikes to protest the rapid end of these war mechanisms. The Truman administration was also concerned about employment. War production had ended and many in the military would be returning to civilian life.
In this atmosphere the administration drafted the Full Employment Act of 1946. The draft was warmly supported by the liberal-labor alliance because it made full employment a right guaranteed to the American people.… Read the rest
Recent Comments