Strong Leadership is Bad?
I’m working on a mega-post related to this item, but I had to comment on this post by Arnold Kling.
My point is that strong leadership is bad, even though it is popular. I recently reminded readers of the bad consequences of the strong leadership of President Nixon’s Treasury Secretary John Connally. I think that the current strong leadership coming from Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson will prove similarly unfortunate.
I couldn’t disagree more. Strong leadership isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just that Kling has pointed to examples of strong leaders who were bad. The bigger (and better) question isn’t “Is strong leadership good or bad” but “Can we, in this day and age and given our deep divisions politically, culturally, socially, elect strong leaders who would be good?”