Leadership Amidst Catastrophe

and the consequences of missed opportunities

Let’s put aside, for the moment, that political leaders are, largely, an alien species.

How they get to positions of immense power, through the deviously byzantine inroads and by-roads of their principles and conscience, is a story for another day. That they are possessed of an immense energy — physical and mental — seems indubitable; and that they are are equally possessed of immense egoism also appears to be unquestionable.

The personal ego almost invariably gets in the way of the fiduciary duties of office and benefiting the common good. How much time must a politician, for example, spend in drumming up monies for the next campaign while ostensibly tending to constituents? Yes, the System is mostly broken, and perhaps the only excuse I can muster is that it is a flimsy guard-rail against the forces of chaotic anarchy.

Yet there are times in a great politician’s career, when the massive ego may be mustered for public beneficence — when the ability to bestow goodness through the instrument of office enhances the grand visions of a transcendent self. And in these instants the remarkable is achieved.

I remember from my own experience in a far different setting and on a far smaller scale a moment when I lost my self, as a young doctor, an intern — by which I mean the literal obliteration of all personal ambition, pride, competition, all tendency to puff up the long white coat with the common imperialistic aims of a Medical Practitioner. The moment occurred while called to a patient experiencing chest pain, and then suddenly and simultaneously being paged to help another patient in the throes of a heart attack. The hairs on my head stood up, cold perspiration decorated my brow, and I was lost in my mission of doing everything possible to minister. Actually, it was a harrowing but glorious experience, full of single-minded purpose directed towards one aim (despite two patients!), and also full of the unspoken sense of doing something both necessary and good.

Back to politics.

When a catastrophe occurs, such as is occurring in the United States now with Hurricane Helene, there can be no greater moment for a leader to step up and step forward, marshalling resources, providing succour and tending to the flock from the position of elected power. There can be no argument against a bold presence on the scene, and a determined commitment to unite all peoples in service to one another, not least of which is the governmental bureaucracy.

In the aftermath there will be a self-satisfied knowledge of having grown into the raiment of greatness by these actions and this work. Thus the massive ego of a politician may be infused with the light of genuine virtue and the gratitude of a populace graced by its effects.

These are the moments to live for, politically speaking, the moments to cherish long in their aftermath, the moments to bring with one to the pearly gates to offset the many sins recorded in Saint Peter’s ledger, perhaps enough to tip the scales towards entrance in the upper spheres.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 I watched the unfolding catastrophe from Ithaca, New York. I was unable to believe the lack of effort, the lack of leadership and the neglect of these fellow-citizens by the Bush administration. A New Orleanian near me burst into tears.

Bush’s inaction didn’t surprise me, I had come to expect nothing from the man in the way of anything decent given his murderous aggressions in Iraq.

That Biden and Harris had not made it their greatest priorities to rush to the scene, mount the pulpit and promise relief to the victims of Helene is, simply, inexplicable. I suppose that their priorities are to send more billions to the Ukraine, to the migrants they are flying in or are allowing to cross the border, and to pull the Tennessee National Guard away from their own state, which is in need, to participate in wartime activities in the Middle East.

Their self- and other-destructive behavior is so bizarre one would think it has been forced upon them under coercion … or, more simply, that they are so removed from the responsibilities of office that even the potential of practical political advantage has eluded them.

I was about to say that they missed the boat — until I remembered the vessel plied by Charon, in Dante’s Inferno, who ferried the souls of the depraved to the domain of no hope. In Charon’s bark they will no doubt find the person of Jacinda Ardern who also missed a magnificent opportunity in 2020 to lead New Zealand out of the covid abyss.

Emanuel E. Garcia, M.D.

October 2024