TRUMP v. CLINTON: Americans are Getting the Leadership they Deserve

Question: Who is staring back at America
when we look at ourselves in the mirror?
Answer: Hillary Clinton & Donald Trump

Following two BIG primary victories in New York, it now appears to be a foregone conclusion that the 2016 Presidential race will pit Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton.

Barring a federal indictment over her e-mail scandal (which will never happen under a President intent on seeing a Democrat succeed him in power for the sake of his own legacy), or an outright revolution in the Republican party (which would signal the end of the GOP as we know it), America has made its choice.

And you know what?  We the People are getting precisely what we collectively deserve.  

For good or ill, in a democracy the collective populace ultimately gets the leadership they either want or deserve—or both.  And when it gets bad, very few bother to look into the mirror and ask themselves how they may have been a part of the problem.  It is always considered to be the fault of the leader, even though the people themselves choose their leaders in a democracy.

If the Republican and Democratic Primary Election Cycles ended today, Americans' choice for Commander-in-Chief would be a decision between DONALD  TRUMP and HILLARY  CLINTON.

The former is a jejune jock whose vapidly vacuous ineptitude concerning serious policy issues is only trumped by his angry locker room braggadocio and profane vocabulary.

The latter, whose historical reputation with the truth is tenuous at best—and who is viewed by nearly two-thirds of the country as being generally dishonest—is currently under investigation by the FBI for her email shenanigans as Secretary of State.

Rationally minded individuals cannot help but ask themselves the question, "How did WE come to this point?

How did it get this BAD?"

The answer is quite simple: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both—on one level or another—are a reflection of a majority of Americans today.  As hard as it may be to look in the mirror and acknowledge the cold hard truth of the matter, the fact is that a better part of our population:

1. Is poorly educated in history, government, ethics, and serious policy issues
2. Generally embraces verbal profanity and crass behavior
3. Struggles with issues of honesty and morality themselves
4. Tends to justify whatever means are required to achieve their own selfish personal or ideological ends

That is why we are at this point.  And unfortunately, it may get worse before it gets better.  This means that we may very well be looking at either a Trump or Clinton administration through the year 2020 or even beyond.

Click HERE to read about the Dangers of a Trump Presidency, philosophically speaking.

Joseph F. Smith
1899-1964

Toward the end of World War II, my maternal grandfather, Joseph F. Smith—a professor and religious leader—said the following to an audience of University Students:

"We accuse leaders and we say the leaders have led us astray.  We pity the Germans for their disreputable leadership.  And, there are unquestionably a lot of good Germans.  But, let it be said that before people can be led, in the beginning they have got to be willing to be led.  And, I am a firm believer that any group of people get just about the leadership it deserves.  I am a firm believer that when in our own country statesmanship falls down, leadership is ineffective, it is due directly to the individuals in the United States who have allowed that leadership to come into power.  The peace of the world rests upon the individuals of the world."

President Theodore Roosevelt once said that in a democracy, "The quality of the individual citizen is supreme."

He is right!

If Americans really want to see authentic HOPE and CHANGE in America, the first step is to go look in the mirror and begin the agonizing, but oh so necessary process of deep self-examination and analysis that leads to personal change.  Again, in the words of Smith:

"Each of us must examine his conduct and he must determine what that conduct will be so that he may have freedom.  And each one of us has the right to choose.  Not only that, every one of us has the ability to choose, if he will but use it."  

Trying to change or influence organizations or structures before you have first purified and educated the minds and hearts of individuals that make them up—including YOUR OWN—is like trying to preserve a barrel of apples with can full of worms.

The first step is always to change yourself.  Freedom Focused exists to inspire others to want to change themselves, and then provide the education and tools required to make that change REAL.

After you have traveled a ways along the journey of self-purification, you will naturally begin to feel a desire to help, lift, serve, and influence others along the same positive pathways you yourself have traveled.  Smith gives some good advice about what to do when you get to this point, especially if you feel discouraged by the moral mayhem you observe all around you:

"Not infrequently you hear this: 'What can I do to help ... Here I am one lone individual.  I cannot have any influence.  I cannot do anything which will help.  I am powerless.'  That, of course, is just nonsense, for the peace [and welfare] of the world rests upon the collective individuals in the world; it does not rest upon nations; it rests upon the individuals in those nations.   

"Do not think for a moment that you can exert no influence because you are young or because you are few.  We have got to get away from the foolish notion that quantity is the important thing in influence.  You know you can go into [your college] laboratories ... and ... find that [a] very minute amount of particular substances can exert tremendous influence.  One individual courageously choosing his own conduct in face of all odds, doing right, can exert a tremendous influence."

Everything I have ever done in my efforts with Freedom Focused have been accomplished in the faith and hope that I, as one, lone, individual, can make a difference.  Sometimes I wonder a bit about the extent to which I actually am making a difference, especially when politicians, pundits, journalists, and just about everyone else is more interested in cleverly complaining about problems than they are in actually fixing them, or supporting those who are making good-faith efforts to do so.

Nevertheless, despite any discouragement that transpires along the way, I know that faith is about action while inaction is the personification of fear.  Because I have faith in myself and in the future of America, I ultimately have faith in Americans themselves, and thus I keep on keeping on in my own mission to make a difference.  

The Lincoln Memorial
Washington D.C.

It is true that we have collectively drifted—badly.  It is also true that we may have to face a crises on part with the greatest trials our nation has ever faced in the past in order to ensure a brighter future for our children and grandchildren.

Click HERE to read about How to Prepare for Coming Conflicts

But come what may, I believe that America has a bright future.  As fractured as we currently stand, and as suicidal as we may yet become, I do not believe we will ultimately pull the trigger on our divine destiny.  And according to Abraham Lincoln, this supposition bodes well for our future.

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? – Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! – All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the Earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." 

In the spirit and faith of a better future for our posterity, let us, in the words of Smith: "Choose so that every event that comes into our lives will be enriching so that we will be bigger than any event, come whatever calamity may.  We can so choose that it will not destroy us. ... We can have freedom each in his own sphere."

This article was inspired, in part, by an OUTSTANDING piece written yesterday for Fox News by syndicated columnist Cal Thomas.  Click HERE to access Thomas's article entitled: Why Donald Trump is Like Floor Wax.


Click HERE to buy a copy of the Freedom Focused TEXTBOOK for personal change.


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Note: Freedom Focused is a non-partisan, for-profit, educational corporation.  As such, we do not endorse or embrace political figures.  We do, however, comment from time-to-time on historical or political events that provide pedagogical backdrops to illuminating principles contained in the SAL Theory & Model.

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Click HERE to read more about Dr. Jensen's book, Self-Action Leadership, and to review what experts in the leadership field are saying about this groundbreaking new personal development handbook.

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The REAL Problem Facing America

Tonight is the third Republican Presidential Debate. It will be broadcasted live from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The Liberty to Vote is a Great Blessing of a Democracy

Freedom Focused is NOT a political entity, nor does it endorse political parties or candidates. We do, however, encourage everyone to attend to their civic duty to get informed and participate in the political process -- one of the greatest gifts and liberties we possess as citizens of a democratic republic.

Our Country currently faces grave troubles. One of the avenues of addressing societal challenges is politics. As such, it behooves every American to stay informed, support candidates you believe in, and then let your voice be heard at the voting booth.

So far, I have had a chance to watch both Republican debates as well as the first Democratic debate. I enjoyed watching both party debates, and learned a great deal in doing so. The day after one of the debates, a Focus Group was queried as to their thoughts on how a particular debate played out.

With relation to one candidate whose personal and professional character was being scrutinized by the questioner, a member of the Focus Group said (to cheers from his comrades): "we need to move past little personal infractions because our Country has much bigger issues to deal with."

When I heard this man's comment, I thought about the work we are undertaking at Freedom Focused. As a corporation, we believe that the "Quality of the Individual is Supreme" -- a principle taught over a century ago by President Theodore Roosevelt. As such, we are dedicated to developing principle-centered leaders who possess sterling individual character.

All politics aside, the man in the Focus Group man could not have articulated a more eloquent inverse of what the REAL problem is in our country. Little did he -- and his colleagues know -- how backwards his formula for problem solving really is, yet sadly, much of the Country agrees with him, and has for several decades now. It seems almost no one wants to take personal responsibility for their individual, or our collective, problems. Likewise, nearly everyone is eager to blame others while making excuses for, and covering up any evidence of, their own character deficiencies.

It ALL begins with the Individual

You cannot solve macro problems by allowing micro problems to go unchecked. Nor can you save the outside of something by permitting its inside to rot. The only way to sanitize and fix the outer vessel of a person, couple, family, neighborhood, school, organization, state, or nation, is to cleanse and sanctify its inner vessel.

Cleaning the inner vessel through character development is where our focus lies at Freedom Focused. As an organization, we are dedicated to the "Quality of the Individual."

 If you'd like to learn more, please peruse some of the archived articles on this blog, sign up to receive future blog posts by adding your e-mail address in the white box on the right hand side of this page that says, "Follow by E-mail," and check out our website at www.freedomfocused.com

And don't forget to do your civic due diligence to stay informed, including watching ALL of the Presidential Debates as you seek to cast well-informed votes this coming November, as well as in next year's Presidential and other elections.

SAL Book: Structural Change vs. Individual Change

A thousand years from now, when historians and philosophers speak of the early twenty-first century in America, it is possible that the primary discussion will not will be about the brutal ideological battles that took place between liberals, conservatives, and moderates; nor will they be heralding the epic political struggles between democrats, republicans, and libertarians.


No. The real struggle of our age is not ultimately a political or ideological struggle; it is rather a tale of misplaced priorities—all of which are undergirded by the dreadfully mistaken notion that there really isn’t any real right or wrong outside of the mercurially unsteady inclinations of the individual.

While there are THREE basic kinds of people in our nation today, it is erroneous to merely categorize the three groups under simple monikers wrought from ponds of political parlance or the inclinations of ideological idiom. Rather, the three categories can be labeled thus:

1. Those who believe real, lasting societal change begins with purifying the minds and hearts of individuals.
2. Those who believe real, lasting societal change begins with purifying structures, systems, and organizations.
3. Those who are fundamentally selfish and therefore don’t care about anything that doesn’t directly impact themselves.

Those in the first group believe that a structure, system, or organization is nothing more than a synergized conglomeration of the individuals that make it up. Therefore, if you purify bad individuals (or purge them from the group) the group itself can begin to heal by virtue of good leadership, morally or otherwise.  The goal of this group is to change individuals, who are then empowered to bring about real and lasting changes in structures, systems, and organizations.  Their view is that if you change the individual, you empower change within the structures.

Those in the second group believe that the structure, system, or organization itself is where the real problem lies, and that if you could only get the larger entity right, then individual purification would naturally follow.  The goal of group two is to perfect systems, which, they believe, will then open up opportunities for individuals to purify themselves.  Their view is that if you change the systems, you empower the individual to change.  

Those residing in the third group don’t really believe in anything except that they themselves are more important than others, and that their desires and inclinations ought to be satiated at any cost. The good news is that in civilized societies, such parasites are usually in the minority. The bad news is that they are always a menacing nuisance to larger groups of which they are part. They produce untold sorrow in the hearts and minds of virtually everyone whose paths they cross. The worse news is that their numbers have been gradually multiplying throughout America since the end of World War II—when America reached its apex of selflessness at the conclusion of an epic war where Americans quite literally rescued the rest of the world from the throes of evil.

There are good people to be found in groups one and two, but only group one possesses the correct mindset for bringing about real, lasting change.  This is because structures, systems, and organizations are made up of individuals, not the other way around.  Macro systemic change without is therefore an outgrowth of micro individual changes within.  You cannot create real or lasting change within a macro system without first reforming its micro constituents--it's impossible; anyone who says otherwise is simply parroting the ideological, and I might add--quite popular--but ultimately erroneous rhetoric of group two.  This rhetoric is popular because it is easier.  Yes, it is much easier to look for and try to solve problems that are "out there" than it is to look for problems inside your own self, family, community, group, culture, etc.  

Despite the self-evident truism that individual change must precede lasting structural change, group two has grown to become both multitudinous and powerful throughout the United States in recent generations. In defense of group two, it is true that many of their leaders and acolytes are decent people who make legitimate points about changes that do indeed need to be made in structures, systems and organizations--most of which are rooted in regrettable past grievances.

The fundamental problem of our age, however, is that such a large sector of society really does believe the untenable myth that structural change prefaces individual change, which, in actuality, is a mathematical and scientific impossibility. You cannot change a structure or system without changing the individuals who make them up; nor can you cleanse a toxic environment without removing the poison that polluted it in the first place.  A box of apples that has begun to rot is not fixed by replacing the box; it is remedied by extricating the bad apples and replacing them with good ones.  It also involves washing off the residue of rot that has begun to rub off onto what good ones remain.

Over two thousand years ago, a man who claimed to be divine, and who dedicated His life to personal sanctification and purification—and then to teaching others to follow His example—both warned of and condemned those whom he called out as, “whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” [1]

I am no divine teacher. I am, however, a teacher. I therefore raise my voice in warning about the dangers of putting the proverbial "cart before the horse" by attempting to sanctify structures without first focusing on purifying—and when necessary purging an organization of—those individuals that form the base ingredient of all false, foul, and fiendish structures presently polluting our nation’s organizational systems, both public and private.

Iwo Jima monument

If America is to regain the national unity, honor, and influence it once held after leading the liberation of an entire Planet from a devil incarnate 70 years ago, the time has come to stop spending so much time complaining and crying about the filth of the outer vessel and begin directing our attention inwardly toward the errors engrossed in our own minds, hearts, attitudes, and behaviors.  It is the only pathway that will return us to greatness.

I do not disagree with nor disparage the good intentions of those seeking to change structures and systems when real problems persist therein.  Many structures and systems are flawed, and need to be revisited, revitalized, and reformed. I simply make an earnest appeal to common sense and natural law, which has, does, and always will demand individual change as the prefacing price of real and lasting organizational purification and change.  After all, won't we as change agents be able to better see what actually needs to change systemically once we are more structurally sound ourselves?  I would argue YES!

Let us therefore stop blaming structures, others, and the past for our problems—both individually and collectively. Let us begin instead to seize upon the power of the present and look deeply within ourselves to see where inner purification is needed. Again, in the words of the master teacher, who upbraided the "whited sepulchres" (who sought to stone the adulteress) with the most poignant of all possible rebukes: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”[2]

Personal Change is often both difficult & painful

The process of personal purification can prove ponderously and perplexingly painful and problematic—and that is why we are all apt to avoid it so vociferously. It is so much easier to find something wrong with someone or something else than it is to humbly confess, "Yep, I'm part of the problem too."  An even more difficult admission is: "It's my responsibility to change." There are many highly intelligent people throughout our nation who have dedicated decorated careers to pointing out, calling out, and openly condemning the sins of others while completely ignoring their own.

Just the other evening I saw a famed professor from an even more famous University make this very mistake while speaking with the host of a well-known op-ed news program. The host was arguing for changing individuals and families while the professor countered with, “No, structures must be changed first.” With all due respect to the very smart professor; he is dead wrong, and the cultural malaise he seeks to remedy will only get worse until intelligent professors and leaders all over the nation STOP putting the cart before the horse and START teaching their folds that real change always, Always, ALWAYS begins within—not without.
 

I love my country. I am concerned about her present and future. After nearly three decades of careful research, observation, and experience, I have come to know both intellectually and viscerally that the best way to make America great again is to change myself—and then teach and influence others to do the same. We will never change systems and structures—must less societies and cultures—until we first change ourselves and shepherd our various flocks to do the same. 

Jordan R. Jensen, Ed.D.

I have dedicated my life and career to changing myself—and then teaching others to do likewise. If you’d like more information on how you can start this journey of self-change -- and of influencing those you lead to follow your example -- and thereby begin the difficult, but oh-so-rewarding process of bringing about real self-change that can, in-turn, improve your family, community, state, nation, and world by a factor of the only being you can actually control—YOURSELF—I invite you to subscribe to this blog and visit our website at...  www.freedomfocused.com 

Click HERE to read about Dr. Jordan Jensen's scholarly work, as well as his OWN painful journey toward self-purification and individual change, click HERE.    

[1] Matthew 23:27 (New Testament)
[2] John 8:7 (New Testament)