Capitol Columns
By Brad Crone
The best leaders are those who can listen, comprehend what people are saying and then lead people to a solution.
The actions of a rowdy mob rioting on Capitol Hill is a scene no one expected to see nor is it the proper course to follow. But when you listen to their motives you learn a great deal.
There is a large number of American voters who feel disenfranchised because of economics, because of the disparities in our healthcare delivery system, because of race, sex, gender identification and their station in life.
We see division. We see the anger, the distrust, the frustrations at a boiling point. It’s not just a black lives issue or a proud boy’s issue. It’s the fact that these people on both partisan sides feel like their voice is not heard, that they must take to the streets to demand change and action.
Both have legitimate grievances whether it is racial equity and social justice – or election integrity, a fair economic system and immigration.
Folks are fed up with the inability of our government at practically every single level federal, state, and local to function at its most basic work such as delivering the COVID-19 vaccines to the arms of our citizens, getting the mail delivered or making federal assistance payments into people’s checking accounts.
Regular everyday folks don’t believe that government can serve them and that’s a great deal of our problem as a society today.
What we need right now are leaders who are willing to listen to the concerns of both sides of the political spectrum. We need to ensure our citizens feel like their voice is being heard and that all efforts are being made to get our government at every single level working again. We need leadership who will focus on getting the basic levers of government working for the regular, everyday people again.
That means we need leadership who hold appointed officials in government offices accountable. It means backing up and looking at the systematic problems we have in today’s governmental bureaucracies and looking for methods and actions that can accommodate the daily needs of our citizens.
Fixing government for the future – means listening to the people the government is meant to serve.
Brad Crone is the former publisher of The Clayton Star and The Thomasville Times. For the past 30 years he has worked as one of the state’s prominent political consultants – operating Campaign Connections in Raleigh. Mr. Crone is a regular panelist on Spectrum News 1. Mr. Crone is registered Unaffiliated.
