Cicero wrote that personal responsibility and moral compass are key to the “Good Life.” He also wrote that “the good life is impossible without a good state; and there is no greater blessing than a well-ordered state.” So, these two are linked.
One of the reasons Donald Trump succeeds is that he demands personal responsibility of his advisors. Reagan did that. Leaders do. But imagine a world in which all did.
Dig deep on this with me, because that world is possible, just not how we live today. Imagine if, instead of fuzzy, weak thinking, agenda-driven nonsense, over-emotionalization, and excuses, illogical decision-making, we had the reverse.
Imagine parents well-trained, encouraged, taking pride again in teaching kids to make rational, non-emotional decisions. Imagine emotion was summoned for only good purposes, to reinforce family, community, national cohesion, not the reverse.
Imagine teachers given the freedom to teach personal responsibility, not encouraged to coddle, excuse, and explain away a lack of personal responsibility, but expected to teach it, model it, and help young people understand the power of self-determination, hard work, and the rewards that flow from responsibility.
Imagine administrators held personally accountable for choices, measured by how much freedom they gave teachers to teach, how much students undertook, how often they listened to parents, but also modeled citizenship, parenting, and tough love.
Imagine a world in which leaders were not fanning dissension, lawlessness, attacks on ICE and law enforcement, not pushing riots and well-paid protestors to rant, rave, and break things, but the reverse, to admire police, military, and our history.
Imagine that we taught kids that there is just one truth, a God-given, reach-into-your-conscience-and-find-it truth, not twenty truths; two genders, not 40 genders; one childhood to learn, understand innocence, wonder, and absorb all the good you can, learn all you can, not face young the horrors of life, as if that were normal.
Imagine spineless media elites stripped of their specialness, no makeup, no preening, but taught to honor truth, how to mow their own lawns, rake their own leaves, clean their own gutters, take personal responsibility, and then…teach it.
Imagine ivy-bedecked professors in their ivory towers, protected by veterans who get dirty, fight, and die for them, suddenly realizing the massive debt on them, and trying to pay it back is through humble admission of wrongness, teaching truth.
As a leader, those who lead in any setting – and we all do or can – we have a responsibility to model personal responsibility, and in this way, reseed, teach it.
I will never forget my Pentagon spaces, destroyed on 9/11, when, by the grace of God, the Lord put me elsewhere. We had a few lines from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, two-time Vietnam veteran, Colin Powell, on that wall. Ronald Reagan’s National Security Advisor made errors, but advised as leaders do.
Leaders must – as Reagan and Trump have done – ask for truth, not spin, reject happy talk, not what underlings think the boss wants, demand truth, and center on it.
The words on that wall were these: “Tell me what you know. Tell me what you do not know. Tell me what you think. And make sure you know the difference.” Frankly, this is what I imagine Trump asks and should. It is what Reagan asked.
A decision made on what you tell the leader is in fact on you. Truth matters; you are held responsible if you do not deliver it. A decision made by the leader based on what you think, on your opinion about those facts, is on the leader, not you.
Bottom line: Taking personal responsibility for actions and words is old-fashioned, but never out of style. It is good for the one who takes the responsibility and teaches others how to do that. Owning what we do and say – is in short supply.
One reason Trump governs with clarity, as Reagan did, is that he demands truth – personal responsibility – of those around him. Good government – like Cicero’s “Good Life” – depends on it. If more stepped up to it, we would be better off.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
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