Michael Rentiers

Since I am still breathing, I might as well be hoping-right?

It’s been a long, tough week on the road.  One of those weeks with multiple pressure points and escalating performance peaks.  On top of that there has been some things that have happened, as a result of successful efforts,  that caused the collective stress level of our team to rise even more.  As I sit in the airport, tired to the bone, I cannot help but think about the risk and reward of leadership.  It’s a tough proposition.  The upside is a great but potentially harder to see and feel.  The downside is a readily visible and  weighty experience.

I am fortunate enough to be friends with (or know well) many quality elected officials and political operatives in this state.  I’ve worked with and developed many relationships with people, that I respect and admire, that are in positions to take on that leadership role I mentioned above.  They believe, as I believe, in the core values that founded and built this nation into the shining city on the hill.   It just seems that somewhere between our politics and our governance those beliefs get lost in translation.  To be sure, I am not pointing fingers. I have been guilty of making leadership decisions based on traditional thinking rather than doing what my gut tells me is the right thing to do many times.  The point of this post is to challenge myself, and those people who are in the position to make a difference, to shed the old way of thinking and to embrace the hard road less traveled.  To stop doing what we have always done and getting what we’ve always gotten for the state of South Carolina.

The unprecedented grassroots organizing by conservative activists this past summer and fall has had a ripple effect on the entire electorate in South Carolina and across this nation.  I see it in my travels and in my work organizing and managing advocacy campaigns.  The effect has been that people are acutely aware of what is going on in government.  I am not talking about left or right wing activists either.  I am saying that the entire electorate is paying attention to what their elected officials are doing and they generally are tired of the status quo.  I also believe that too much time has been spent focusing on the national ramifications of this phenomena and state leaders ignore this fact at their own peril.

This state is facing so many problems that it could be hard to know where to begin, but one thing is for sure-now is the time for Republicans and Democrats alike at the Statehouse to start looking at new ways of answering our age old problems.

I feel pretty safe in saying that if you take the unconventional route, the electorate will not just support you, they will lionize you.

Let me repeat that  in another way. There is a vacuum of leadership in this state. There is also a building force of concerned citizens on the outside adding pressure to that vacuum.  Any leader(s) who will stand up and take this state in a new direction would have an incredible amount of force with which to use in bringing this state back from the brink.

The new litmus test for making governing decisions should be to ask yourself, “am I doing it because that is what we always do in this situation?”  If the answer is yes, it is time time find a new way of doing it.  It is time to reshape the decision making matrix and to be willing to try anything new.  The electorate will reward you and defend you.  Besides, It could not be worse than where we are now.

There is always opportunity in adversity, but rarely is there opportunity to lead on rough seas with wind already in your sails.

Who will be that leader?

Dum Spiro Spero