When we lived in Canada we found that people had a nice way of showing respect for the President of the USA. It was probably a compromise derived at after much discussion. Many in Canada could never bring themselves to pay respects to whoever was in office at the time, so as a toast to Canada (the Queen) and then to their neighbor, it would be “A toast to the OFFICE of the President of the United States.” And that to me is the least of what we should do in respecting our Presidents. Respect is not the same as supporting them though.
We are so blessed in this country to be able to disagree vehemently with elected officials without reprisal. In many countries, you can be put in prison or killed. But that freedom does not give the right to practice character assassin no matter how much we disagree. A citizen should express their difference with a leader in a positive way or not at all. If we don’t know a better way, it is not helpful to simply express bitter disagreement.
In history there have been leaders that are easy to support, at least for a time. Some people come to a position of power with leadership qualities - they feel that empowerment comes from educating the populace in ways to lead themselves versus simply telling them what to do. They embrace the nature of helping people help themselves, they teach, and they realize that their position is temporary. Their power is only evident because others have given them the stage for a brief period of time, so it is fleeting. Aiding individuals in self-governance is a legitimate function of government, the ideal role of a public servant.
Some elected official may be leaders - in the sense that they can and are willing to lead, and not dominate. But many, especially in third-world countries but also in others, are simply authoritarians. If a leader does not realize his/her proper role, this can lead to widespread dissention. At its extreme, dissention can lead to violence. Is a person wrong in these circumstances to take such a stand?
The Bible tells us to respect our leaders as they are there because God has selected them. Sometimes even oppressive leaders were used by God to teach a lesson to disobedient people. It would be nearly humanly impossible for the subjects to support such a leader though.
But leadership is important. It is needed to improve our response to emergencies, to strengthen security and protect the environment, and to increase the competitiveness of our businesses and economies among other important roles. Without support for the critical roles that government can bring about, worthwhile progress cannot exist. The role of even a citizen with no personal political power is important but also elusive.
So what worthwhile conclusion can a person come to regarding support of our leaders? We need to realize that our leaders often face an almost impossible task to do everything right. Since it is difficult to please even two persons completely in our own families or among friends, the task grows exponentially as the number of people increases. Some leaders choose a goal of just being popular. They may get little done that is worthwhile, but they ruffle as few feathers as possible. They may remain popular but history may show that their term was really a disaster.
True leaders analyze what actions would be most beneficial over a longer term, set out a path and remain steadfast to the end. Their popularity may degrade to near zero, but somehow they manage to accomplish things that ultimately benefit mankind.
I have seen the results of various leadership styles even on boards of directors. It is the most important duty of a Board to select a proper leader for the organization. Then they need to monitor and offer useful ideas. A glad-hand person may rise to the head and remain for some time. Often the organization suffers with his/her lack of leadership. Only when things get really bad will this ‘leader’ be replaced. Will a strong leader then emerge? Sometimes this happens. At other times the organization continues to slide into chaos – witness General Motors. Also there are many examples of former prominent companies that no longer exist or are just a small shadow of their former greatness, such as Arthur Andersen. It was lack of proper leadership, but it was also greed and miscues that caused their fall.
The same thing can happen in a country. The United States became the most powerful nation on earth after a tumultuous history. Our founding fathers suffered great personal hardship in creating a country ‘under God’. I believe that God has heaped many blessings on our country and gave us a prominent role in the world. Many oppressive dictatorships were defeated; people were given freedom in other countries. So now after this tremendous history of good works, where are we headed? Although it is unthinkable to most people, it is possible that our magnificent country is headed for the scrapheap of history. Without God behind us, there can be no real future. How many realize this?
Those who are bent on removing all traces of God from government and from schools do not number among those. Evidentially they have not read the Bible that has hundreds of examples from history of countries that were once powerful whose names are not now known. Egypt once controlled much of the known world, as did Babylonia, and the Persian Empire. Only Egypt still exists but is only a shadow of its greatness and best known for the pyramids.
So we get back to the question, should we support our leaders? My answer is yes, but we need to watch carefully to ascertain what direction they are leading. If it is away from God, then we should do all we can to change this course. But just ranting against a leader we do not support is not helpful. We should support opposition leaders that we trust and who offer worthwhile ideas and plans, not just opposition for its sake. We should also express our own well thought-out ideas for a better course. This is democracy in action!
We pray that we are not in the sunset of our nation.