Recently, I was listening to a reporter talk about the European financial crisis. She said, “The problem is, the Europeans have borrowed too much.” For some reason, this statement just struck me as wrong. It wasn’t that it was untrue. It just missed the point. The problem isn’t the borrowing per se. The problem is the underlying reason governments borrow so much – the spending. This may seem like an insignificant or meaningless distinction. Spending, borrowing, it’s all connected. The issue here is accountability, and that is what makes the two different. It’s easy to blame nameless, faceless politicians in Washington or the capitals of Europe for the debt crises. They irresponsibly kept raising the debt limits, which got them into this mess. They’ve borrowed so much money that the prospect of paying it back seems impossible.
When we recognize that it is the spending that lies at the heart of our problem, the accountability becomes more personal. We, as individual citizens, own this problem, because we are the ones who have become so wedded to government programs that we feel entitled to them. We also own our current political situation. According to a February 8, 2012 Gallup Poll, the approval rating for Congress was at an appallingly low 10%, compared to the normally anemic average of 34%. Yet, despite this fact, we continue to re-elect our Representative and Senators more than 90% of the time. It’s as if we say, “Sure Congress stinks, but my Congressman is O.K.” This is our problem, and until we take ownership, it isn’t going to get fixed. We, the average citizens, have to change. We must demand that Congress act decisively, and we must be willing to sacrifice and stop defending our little piece of the pie.
Once we face the reality that our actions and expectations are driving these crises, we can force government to act differently. We can start demanding that our governments make the difficult choices and hard cuts. The operative words here are “difficult” and “hard.” The decisions will be unpopular and painful. The process will be hard and it will take us years, if not decades, to correct. Remember, it took us decades to get to this place.
It is time for leadership! It is time for every one of us to take a stand for change. Leadership is about choosing to act and encouraging others to act with us. Regardless of one’s attitude about the Tea Party or the Occupy movements, they represent the type of personal accountability we need. Sure, it’s easy to mock both groups for naiveté or for oversimplifying the problems, but the truth is that they have chosen to act. They have chosen to lead. Until the rest of us do the same, we will remain the problem. What will it take for you to choose to lead?