Most of us have had “that” boss.  If lucky enough to have not had to work for this person, we know someone who has.  It’s not a pleasant experience, and one way or another, it usually doesn’t end well.

Sure, things start out OK.  The work environment may have seemed impressive at the start, and there were bold pronouncements about all the team would accomplish together.  But then, slowly or suddenly, adversity strikes.  Rather than rallying the team and having them focus on the path to achieve the goals that everyone was already working on, the boss goes into full panic mode.

Instead of getting rogue team members back on track or out of the organization, the boss instead starts making demands that might sound good in the minute, but are counterproductive. Often the trouble makers within the organization get all the boss’ attention, upsetting those who were actually focused on the long term goals.

 Instead of instilling a sense of resolve to get the job done, the boss projects the anger and surprise from very foreseeable events as threats to accomplish new tasks.  These are often hysterically unreasonable and unattainable, but it’s what “the stakeholders” are demanding. 

When the majority of the workers try to remind their chain of command that there were already tasks assigned, and progress toward goals were being made, it gets worse.  “I don’t care.  That was yesterday. This is what we need today!”

Most of the work that was done is then undone, and the workers are told to begin work on something else. With unclear goals, limited chance of success, and with horrible morale within the organization because everyone knows that failure is certain but management doesn’t want to hear it, the workers phone in their efforts until they either quit, or hope that soon enough there will be new management that might actually have a clue.

That’s a long preamble to vent about the current state of the electorate, and the view of too many partisans of their role in representative government.  To put an even finer point on this, I’m speaking directly to Republican primary voters and GOP grassroots leaders, as they are the ones I have some direct knowledge of how their selection and election process works.

We have too many problems that have crept in to both the official organizations that are aligned with the GOP, and the “base” of voters who frankly have a level of self-importance that has long since been counter-productive. It’s past time to address them directly

One of the more fashionable things for Republican grass-roots members to say to express their displeasure with any elected official who disagrees with them is “You’re not a leader, you’re our representative. You work for us!”.  These are the same people who love to correct anyone who refers to our form of government as a democracy with “We’re not a Democracy, we’re REPUBLIC!”

The latter is quite technically true.  The former statement is quite contradictory to how a republic must work.  After the debacle of the last week in the U.S. House that has left the chamber without a leader, it is time to force base Republicans to square this circle.

We elect our leaders to represent us at all levels, including in Washington. They have to lead because, to paraphrase Hamilton, they’re the ones in the room where it happens. It’s their job to represent us in places we’re not, in discussions we’re not a party to, and to make decisions based on facts that we will never know.

This, unfortunately, is lost on unelected self-proclaimed leaders in an era where entertainment is disguised as news, social media is targeted to counter-program actions of those who are elected, and there is entire political industry weaponized to convert voter engagement into small dollar donations on a perpetual basis.  The core of all of these is to convince the voters that they know more than those they elect about what the elected are voting on, and that the strategy of unaccountable pundits is somehow more sound that those who are actually trying to put points on the scoreboard.

The Speaker of the House is elected by the members. It’s the judgement of those we send to Washington who should decide who has the temperament to keep the team focused on the tasks at hand while insulating them from the many loud voices that seek to derail the accomplishments of the group for the profit of the obstructionists at every turn. 

The “base” needs to step back, and ask themselves as “the boss”, are they part of the problem, or part of the solution?  Because right now, given recent history and the state of the Republican/Conservative organizations, no sane person would want to work in such a hostile work environment which offers little chance of succeeding.