Nihal On Leadership

In 1303, the Sultan of Delhi attacked Chittor, a fort in what is today the Indian state of Rajasthan. Faced with certain defeat, the defenders lit a large bonfire inside the fort. Led by the queen, the women committed suicide by jumping into it en masse. With their women having chose death over dishonor at the hands of the enemy, the king led the men onto the plains below to fight a final battle to the death.

Seven hundred years later, the standard for leadership in Rajasthan has waned just a bit. Here’s the sign I saw at a highway toll booth on the way to Chittor:

But give credit to the Indian politicians: at least they put up a sign. At home, the chasm between politicians and leaders continues to widen, even as the nation’s troubles grow more acute. Consider healthcare. The problem is simple to understand: if costs keep growing at their present rate (costs have tripled in real dollars between 1965 and 1985, and tripled again between 1985 and 2005), they will bankrupt the nation. And we’re not getting much for what we’re spending: America’s infant mortality rate ranks 46^th and life expectancy ranks 38^th (behind the socialist paradises of Cuba and Canada, respectively). Osama himself couldn’t have ordered a more fearsome enemy to lay siege to America.

But do we want to be led into battle by these folks?

• Congressional Republicans, who believe that the government shouldn’t be trusted with anything other than making war and cutting taxes? Instead, they resort to scare tactics to protect the status quo, just as they did in 1993 and during the six years they controlled the Presidency and Congress

• Congressional Democrats, who are utterly incapable of explaining the threat in layman’s terms and moving in a coordinated fashion to actually solve the problem? Instead, they resort to class warfare, cave to the usual corporate lobbies, and will most likely pass a half-hearted, compromise-ridden bill that will do little to cut costs.

• President Obama, who inspires the public with his soaring rhetoric, but makes the mistake of letting the citizenry think that they can have their cake and eat it too? Unfortunately, his reputation as the One is corrupted by his predisposition to work within the system, rather than revolutionize it. I’d love to be proven wrong, but it looks like “the fierce urgency of now” is easier said than done.

• The Media? Though often derided as a tool of the left, the media bows before only one master: their own ratings. So rather than drag Americans out of their uninformed stupor, they pander to it. Racial profiling in Cambridge! Kenyan birth certificates! Governors and their mistresses! Gay marriage! Sarah Palin! And now that they’ve learned that opinion-mongering brings home better ratings than the objective news, “commentators” spew outrage at the expense of reasoned debate.

Today, there’s not much left of Chittor: only ruins overrun by two-bit guides that claim to know where the queen committed suicide.

But you have to wonder that if such selfless leadership couldn’t save that kingdom, what becomes of a nation whose leaders are too cowardly to even face the enemy?

Do tell us, Rush Limbaugh.