Dictators always have a problem – STAFF. When you are a dictatorship advancement is based on pleasing the dictator, not competency. Truly competent people generally do not like toadying, so dictators tend to be surrounded by loyalists, but not necessarily the best people for the job.

Ask Putin. This whole Ukraine invasion thing is not going well for him. Most thought it would be over by now, but it’s not. Some of that is because the Ukrainians are much smarter fighters than anticipated, but a lot of it is because Putin’s own troops are not performing up to par. A retired military friend of mine once said “War is logistics,” and Putin’s supply lines are getting pretty thin. He has major logistical problems. In other words his military staff is not getting the job done. See first paragraph.

I see this happen in small business all the time. Most of my clients are privately held, and you can draw a line down the middle of that group. Those where the guy in charge wants to run every little aspect of the company are successful only to a certain point. Those that look for good people and enable them, tend to succeed to the point of going V.C. or public. It’s all in whether the guy in charge wants to dictate or lead. When the boss starts to interfere with a competent employee, the competent employee wants to move on. Such interference is insulting to the employee’s competence.

Which brings me to the current administration. Constitutionally, nobody is a dictator in the United States, not structurally anyway. But it is very clear that this administration is being dictated to by a few ideologies – climate change – Iran deal – wokeness. These three things act as filters through which all other considerations must be strained, just like the wishes of a dictator. Further, this is true even if they interfere with the task at hand. And thus, good people are hard to find in this administration.

This administration is Obama redux with a less competent leader. Do you remember in the early days of the Obama administration? He started with a lot of good, if wrong-headed, appointments. They all left very rapidly in the first few years. See first paragraph. This left the Obama administration as primarily operated by youngsters, slave to the ideologies. Well, now those youngsters are seasoned veterans and were reappointed under Biden – problem is they are still slaves to the ideologies, and without even the modicum of prudent leadership that Obama exercised we are seeing a nightmare of an administration.

Back in the days of Article VI Blog I often quoted “Martin Luther” (This quote is attributed to him, but not well sourced) “I’d rather be ruled by a competent Turk than an incompetent Christian.“ Competency matters more than ideology. Might be important to remember that in these next election cycles.

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