Letter: Leaders replaced by followers in government

Sunday, May 13, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

Here in Nevada and across most of the country there is always a crisis of the day for government. What to do about kindergarten expansion, new roads, illegal immigration, and the list goes on ad infinitum.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that this is a continuing process. Very troubling is the lack of attention to the overall process of how these issues are or are not being resolved and by whom.

Lee Iacocca's recent book, an excerpt of which was published May 6 in the Las Vegas Sun, certainly highlighted the root cause of our lack of coherent problem resolution within our government. Where have all the leaders gone? I suspect many have fled to private industry where they can and do make a difference.

Many of those to whom we now look to provide us with sound common sense leadership in government are not leaders but followers. For advice they rely upon the latest public opinion poll or, worse , a cabal of lobbyists for guidance and decision-making. Job and power retention have become far more important than the greater good.

Who is to blame for this malaise, the lack of quality leaders in government? We are, of course. It takes education, time and effort for voters to sort out the wheat from the chaff. Very few of us are willing to do this and we simply assume that it will all work out in the end. Perhaps it will but not in any way that we hoped it would.

Richard Rychtarik, Las Vegas