The F.L.I.P. Side of Leadership, Revealed and Reversed

By Peter Alduino

The F.L.I.P. Side of Leadership Revealed

Perhaps to no one’s surprise, the testimony in the trial of the Vice-President’s former Chief of Staff revealed with increasing clarity the rancid tactics of leadership of the Bush-Cheney Administration. I call it the F.L.I.P. side of leadership. Let me elaborate. It has become common and accepted practice for the President and the Vice-President to:

Fear monger or Fabricate a claim;
Limit access to information or Lie about the facts;
Impugn the integrity of or Intimidate any detractors;
Persevere in the pursuit of Power, Partisan goals, Profit, or Personal gain, with disrespect for the offices they swore to faithfully execute, and disregard for the Constitution they swore to preserve, protect and defend.

We learn that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales used the same tactics to brush off the firing of 8 federal prosecutors. F: He fabricated the claim that the issue was only an “overblown personnel matter”; L: He attempted to limit our learning of his complicity with the White House and, it appears, intentionally lied when he insisted that the firings were based on an evaluation of the prosecutors’ professional performances; I: An unsavory Justice Department official attempted to intimidate one prosecutor with a veiled threat to impugn his integrity by means of a personal smear campaign should he continue to talk publicly about the unexpected and professionally unwarranted firings; P: As a result, we see how this Administration pursues the goal to parlay even federal prosecutors into complicit instruments of its political agenda.

This is standard operating procedure for the Bush-Cheney Administration. After all, this Administration has used these tactics repeatedly to malign critics and manage resistance. More importantly and more injurious to the American character of truth, justice and the rule of law, this Administration has relied on this playbook of tactics to press its cases for: WMDs, the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, rendition and the concentration camp at Gitmo, eliminating Habeas Corpus, a trillion dollar tax cut, industry-friendly Medicare reforms, minimizing global warming, marginalizing good science in public policy, and on and on and on.

The sad truth is that after six years of repeated practice, these Bush-Cheney tactics are insinuating themselves into the content of the American character, and becoming increasingly visible in the behaviors of people who might otherwise think twice about the character and consequences of their words and actions – people like you and me. (What were those people thinking who applauded Ann Coulter’s gay slur of John Edwards?) The cases are so frequent that a casual reading of the news in any one week offers stories from business, church, schools, state and local governments, or not-for-profits where people are resorting to these ethically or lawfully suspect tactics for their own selfish purposes. The sadder truth is that these tactics are leaving a lasting legacy of disillusion, division, disenfranchisement, disgust and cynicism in our places of work, our places of worship, our institutions of learning, in our communities and in our American culture.

The routine practice of these leadership tactics is the conduct of cowards.

The F.L.I.P. Side of Leadership Reversed

I firmly believe that the vast majority of us are courageous enough speak and act in ways that can overwhelm the influence of those who currently betray their position as our leaders, and cheapen our American character and culture.

Let us begin with ourselves, and hold ourselves accountable for both our individual behaviors, and how we talk to and about one another.

F: Where the cowards would fear monger and fabricate, let us have the courage to forge a shared understanding of what is real and what is not;

L: Where the cowards would limit access to information and lie about the facts, let us have the courage to level with one another so that we may all make clear and informed choices;

I: Where the cowards would intimidate or impugn the integrity of detractors, let us invite individuals who disagree, and be grateful for the sanity and wisdom that we derive from differing points of view;

P: Where the cowards would flout ethics and law to pursue power, partisan goals, profit, or personal gain, let us practice the principles that will help us shape and savor a culture of truth, justice, and the rule of law - a culture in which our behaviors and words and actions reflect our commitment and courage to live up to an American character that we the people of the United States can all be proud of.

Let us remember and take strength from the words of Attorney General and Senator Robert Kennedy, “Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest of walls of resistance.”