Our View

Dear Congressman Buchanan:

Let’s get right to the point: You and all of your colleagues in Washington — in the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats alike — need to step it up, big time. Big Time.

There’s a crisis. No, not just one crisis. They’re all over. And we all know where the center of these crises are:

Our president is failing the nation … and failing the world, alarmingly so!

And yet, here we are, law-abiding Americans all over the country in states of outrage, disbelief and such incredible frustration that we seemingly can do nothing but stand by and watch this destruction unfold before our eyes day by day.

It’s time, Congressman. We need you, your House colleagues and members of the U.S. Senate to rise above all of your political self-interests and party interests and show leadership.

Put America first.

There is no need to go down the list of crises — IRS, VA, Iraq, etc., etc. You and everyone else know what they are. But the one that is the crisis of the day that so explicitly illustrates why you and your colleagues need to step up is the humanitarian immigration crisis along our Mexican border states.

You, as much as anyone, being a business owner for many years, know well how a chief executive officer is to act in a crisis. And it’s profoundly clear — abundantly clear — that our president either doesn’t know how to deal with a crisis, or worse and believably so, is engaging in calculated indifference and arrogance to what is occurring.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been calling these past few weeks — not to mention the past six years — for the president to seal the borders. Yet Gov. Perry has stated the president has done nothing — not a thing — to help Texas. Instead, we read, the president is going to Texas for another political fundraiser; not to visit the border, not to protect his nation.

More than 52,000 illegal alien children without parents — virtually all from Central America — have flooded over the Mexican border the past three months. It’s an invasion. And these aliens are roiling the sovereign citizens of California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.

Unconscionable leadership
Surely you have watched the astonishing comments of Alan Long, mayor of Murrieta, Calif., tell reporters he has no idea why the federal government chose his city of 106,000 residents north of San Diego as a drop-off site for nearly 150 of these illegal aliens. No one in the president’s administration had the decency or management professionalism to alert Mayor Long — or other cities’ mayors or governors — why the Obama administration is dumping this problem in their communities and states. No one.

Does it even need to be said, Congressman, that this is no way to manage a crisis, let alone lead your nation through it? This is an unconscionable lack of leadership.

Every CEO worth his or her pay knows that when a crisis strikes, you go into overdrive. You devote every resource available to bringing the crisis or emergency under control as quickly as possible. And you communicate to everyone involved forthrightly and honestly what is being done and what will be done.

Obama has done none of this.

And his response, as you and the nation know, typifies his leadership in all of the other crises spinning around us like 120 mph cyclones.

These crises are real, Congressman, and just as real is the vast, dangerous vacuum of leadership. Someone needs to take charge and restore order. Now. Fast.

Don’t kid yourself. Nothing in the president’s behavior or management skills is going to change. He has had six years to prove it. And he hasn’t. He won’t.

Put aside your egos
This is why Congress — Democrats and Republicans united — must step forward and fill the void.

Imagine this immigration crisis as war threatening our borders and how it requires the nation’s leaders to come together with the same mission and objective: to protect our citizens and sovereignty. What would you do if you were CEO or president in a time of crisis or war? How would you address this “invasion?”

Strong leaders would put aside their egos and re-elections and reach out to their opposition. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell should be the bigger men and take the initiatives; reach out publicly, earnestly and respectfully to Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Persuade them to meet. And the first order of business should be to: 1) acknowledge there are crises that need responses other than those being taken; and 2) agree to find immediate, common-ground choices that are in the best interest of the American people.

It’s no time to blame anyone or deny the obvious. It’s time to grab the hose together and put out the raging fires.

Strong leaders would reach out to and involve other leaders — governors, generals, mayors and others. Enlist their ideas and help. For Pete’s sake, go back and look at your history, Congressman. Look how America responded when the nation mobilized to fight World War II.

It’s not about who gets credit or who stands on what side of a political aisle. It’s about leadership for the good and posterity of the United States.

You, the president and your colleagues took a sacred oath: to “support and defend the Constitution … against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; … and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office …”

Live up to your oath. Do what we elected you to do, Congressman.

Show the nation and show the world we haven’t lost it. We’re still the United States of America. We’re still exceptional. Show them we’re still the best the world has to offer.

Respectfully,
MW

HOW A CEO SHOULD ACT IN A CRISIS; AND HOW OBAMA ISN’T
The following excerpts are from the book, “How to Act Like a CEO,” by D.A. Benton, McGraw-Hill, 2000:

• Take Charge. “When things are down, you have to be out in front. You’re the captain; it’s your problem,” says Lee Roberts, CEO of FileNET.

• Ensure the crisis is over. Hopefully, the frontline workers are trained well enough and have the attitude of integrity, inspired by the CEO, to do the right thing and get the situation resolved or at least under control as efficiently and effectively as possible.

• Assess damage. As soon as possible, review the ramifications of all parties involved.

• Be visible. Go out and show concern and compassion. While the frontline troops are fixing the problem, you must be boosting their morale, comforting families, and letting everyone know that this is a leader and an organization that cares about its employees and their welfare and will be with them in a time of crisis.

DUTIES OF CONGRESS, PRESIDENT IN THE U.S. CONSTITUTION
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Article 1, Section 8:
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

… To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years …

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;”

Article 2, Section 1:
“Before he [President] enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Section 3:
“… he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed …”

Article 4, Section 4:
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and … “against domestic violence.”

Article 6:
“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several state Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution …”