Leaders and Followers

During the Presidential Debates on Domestic Policy, I live-tweeted some thoughts, and retweeted those of others'.  In short order, a former student shared his opinion on the differences in leadership skills between the two candidates.  He believed Barack Obama to be the better leader and would vote based on that.  Now, for the record, I disagree wholeheartedly.  But, for the purpose of laying out principles and examining them, suppose Obama is a fantastic leader.  Is leadership a good quality?

Points in favor of leadership as a positive quality.
1) You can convince others to take a certain course of action.
2) You can rally individuals around a cause.
3) You can bring individuals with differentiated interests and goals together to work toward an objective.

Points against leadership as a positive quality.
1) You can convince others to take a certain course of action.
2) You can rally individuals around a cause.
3) You can bring individuals with differentiated interests and goals together to work toward an objective.

Leadership is only positive when the goal of the leader leads to good consequences.  Leadership is awful, a tragedy, when the leader's goals lead to negative consequences.  Human history is filled with examples of morally repugnant men and women who possessed great leadership qualities.

I've never craved a leader to follow.  My twitter debate opponent made the points: "I prefer focus over ADD.  I've had indecisive leaders before and they suck."  I joked back and referenced that Hitler was very focused.  What a great leader he was.  Should we look back at Caesar, Stalin, or any of history's other dictators and view them favorably in light of their leadership skills?  No.  What we do instead is look at what a tragedy it was that enough people were willing to follow these leaders to allow them to carry out their disastrous policies and plans.

Is Obama an abhorrent tyrant comparable to Hitler?  No.  But his policies have negative consequences both intended and unintended.  Some people may find him charismatic and a strong leader, but I view these traits as negative, because I believe his goals are wrongheaded, based on empirically tested and failed ideologies, or purely punitive on a social-class that this country relies heavily on for funding its activities.