Leadership and Crisis (36 page)

A top-down, command style organization works in the military but not in government. Whether the issue is education, healthcare, energy, you name it—a one-size-fits-all solution is rarely the best one in a nation of 300 million people. Enhancing local power, promoting the free market, and allowing people to make their own meaningful choices—in other words, expanding freedom—is the traditional American way because it’s the way that works best.

We are trying to live this way and govern this way in Louisiana. It’s not easy—old habits die hard, as they say. And quite often the complex rules and regulations coming from Washington tie the hands of local government and make it even harder to change.

President Obama won election in 2008 with a brilliant campaign that convinced people that change was on the way, that he was going to do things differently. There was a sense of newness, of freshness, a sense that the little guy was going to get a chance to help in a grand effort of national improvement. The campaign fed off grassroots energy and the idea that no one needed to wait for instructions from central command.

Less than two years into the Obama administration, reality has set in. Betraying his people-power rhetoric, this president has ushered in the biggest expansion of the old, top-down, centralized government model our country has ever seen. More than ever, power is concentrated in a few hands in Washington. Obama’s young campaign workers and grassroots enthusiasts, it turns out, were not empowered at all.

The biggest change we’ve seen, in fact, is that it almost seems like you can add another zero to everything—to the number of jobs lost, to the deficit, to the debt, to our foreign obligations. Instead of “change you can believe in,” it’s “change you hoped you’d never see.” The Democrats, seemingly to their own surprise, are discovering the government can’t spend us into prosperity.

Americans have a certain tolerance for ideology and rhetoric, but underneath it all they expect to find policies that work. So it’s up to us to turn our conservative principles into practical solutions that empower people and that will keep America the greatest and freest nation on earth.

I believe government can and should function at an extremely capable level. We need to root out the casual toleration of mediocrity in government. It should be embarrassing that the phrase “It’s good enough for government work” has become the ultimate slacker motto. We would often feel blessed just to get basic competence out of government—ask anyone in line at the Post Office or at the DMV. But that is setting the bar too low. We must demand from government not just competence, but something more—a commitment to excellence.

I’d like to end this book by asking you to do something: I want you to get in the game.

There are many ways you can make a difference. You can run for office; serve in government; volunteer on a campaign; donate to a candidate who wants to get our country on the right track; start going to townhall meetings and tea parties; or just talk to people you know about ways to get this country moving forward again.

This much I know: we will not take our government back by sitting on the sidelines.

My mom and dad had a simple goal for their kids: to make whatever sacrifices necessary to ensure that we had more opportunities than they did. Millions of American parents have made and kept that same promise. But my generation of Americans could be the first to leave fewer opportunities for our children than we enjoyed. It’s hard to think of a bigger example of national failure. We must not let that happen.

Let me close by recalling a scene from the movie
Hoosiers
. A kid on a high school basketball team is called up from the bench by the coach and told to go into a big game. The kid is a reserve who hadn’t received much playing time, but this is a crucial time, and his team needs him. The kid, being of strong faith, stops on the sidelines and kneels down to pray. The coach walks up to him and says, “Son, God wants you in the game.”

There you have it. It’s time to get in the game. Do it now—your country needs you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, even though they don’t know it, the people of Louisiana helped me write this book. From my neighbors growing up, to my teachers in school, to the many good folks I have met in my thirty-nine years, the people of Louisiana have helped to form and shape me as a person. I thank them.

Let me first point out how much I appreciate the input I received from folks who work on my staff. They work long hours for the people of Louisiana, and it was really above and beyond the call of duty for them to give me a few of the precious hours of free time they have to provide feedback. Timmy Teepell, Melissa Sellers, Stephen Waguespack, and Kyle Plotkin all provided excellent suggestions and criticism. I also want to thank their families for letting them help out.

Many others agreed to look over the initial drafts and give suggestions, and I even listened to some of their ideas. Among those are Wes Anderson, Alex Castellanos, Ben Domenech, Garret Graves, Blaise Hazelwood, Alan Levine, Brad Todd, and Sam Van Voorhis. Well done, and thank you all.

Curt Anderson and Peter Schweizer were crucial to this book. Peter is an accomplished author in his own right, and Curt is a close friend who knows how I think.

My brother Nikesh is irreplaceable in my life, many thanks to him for his friendship and assistance. My parents, Amar and Raj Jindal, are responsible for me. If you don’t like me, take it up with them. I could not have written the book without their help.

My children, Selia, Shaan, and Slade, did not help on this book, and at times did their best to stop the process altogether. But what they have done is give me a much better understanding of what life and love are all about.

What can I say about Supriya? We are inseparable, we do everything together. She’s my biggest defender, and in private my best check and balance. To say that she helped me on this project is an enormous understatement.

NOTES

1
“Whiteboard Archives,”
Politico.com
, May 2, 2010; available at:
http: //www.politico. com/politico44/wbarchive/whiteboard05022010 .html [accessed September 14, 2010]
.

2
I think Alexander Hamilton got it right in the Federalist Papers, no. 70: “Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.” Quentin P. Taylor, The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of The Federalist Papers, Constitutional Heritage Series, Vol. 3 (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998).

3
Clifford Krauss, “Oil Spill’s Blow to BP’s Image May Eclipse Costs,”
New York Times
, April 29, 2010; available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/business/30bp.html
; Tim Webb, “BP boss admits job on the line over Gulf oil spill,”
The Guardian
(UK), May 14, 2010; available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/may/ 13/bpboss-admits-mistakes-gulf-oil-spill
; Christopher Helman, “In His Own Words: Forbes Q&A with BP’s Tony Hayward,” Forbes, May 18, 2010; available at:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/18/oil-tony-hayward-business-energy-hayward. html
; Jessica Durando,“BP’s Ton Hayward: I’d like my life back,”
USA Today,
June 1, 2010; available at:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/06/bp-tony-hayward-apology/1?loc=interstitialskip
; and Emily Loftis, “Spill Workers Get Sick, Chemicals Get a Pass,”
Mother Jones
, June 2, 2010; available at:
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/06/chemical-regulation-gulf-workers-sickness
[accessed September 14, 2010].

4
“Oil Cleanup Crews Rest More Than Work,”
wapt.com
, July 14, 2010; available at:
http://www.wapt.com/r/24256040/detail.html
[accessed September 14, 2010].

5
Hornbeck Offshore Services, LLC
vs.
Kenneth Lee “Ken” Salazar
, United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisana; available at:
http://www.laed. uscourts.gov/GENERAL/Notices/10-1663_doc67
. pdf [accessed September 21, 2010]. See also Laurel Brubaker Calkins and Margaret Cronin Fisk, “Deepwater Drilling Ban Lifted by New Orleans Federal Judge,” Bloomberg, June 23, 2010; available at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-22/u-s-deepwater-oil-drilling-ban-lifted-today-by-new-orleans-federal-judge
. html [accessed September 14, 2010]. A recording of the oral arguments in the case can be found here:
http://www.ca5.uscourts gov/OralArgRecordings/ 10/10-30585_7-8-2010.wma
..

6
David Hammer, “ Jindal says Obama still doesn’t get moratorium’s economic impact,”
Nola.com
, June 10, 2010; available at:
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/jindal_says_obama_still_doesnt.html
[accessed September 14, 2010].

7
Stephen Power and Leslie Eaton, “U.S. Saw Drilling Ban Killing Many Jobs,”
Wall Street Journal
, August 21, 2010; available at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704488404575441760384563880.html
[accessed September 14, 2010].

8
Editorial, “Protests from experts show drilling moratorium based on politics, not science: An editorial,”
nola.com
, June 11, 2010; available at:
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/protests_from_experts_show_dri.html
[accessed September 14, 2010].

1
Dr. Jennifer Patico, Georgia State University, Department of Anthropology; bio available at:
http://www.cas.gsu.edu/anthropology/2255.html
[accessed September 14, 2010].

2
Quoted in Clinton Bolick,
Voucher Wars: Waging the Legal Battle over School Choice
(Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2003).

3
See for example “Learning for Tomorrow’s World,” OECD Programme for International Student Assessment; available at:
http://www.oecd.org/document/5/0,3343,en_32252351_32236173_33917573_1_1_1_1,00.html
[accessed September 14, 2010].

4
Thomas Jefferson, Correspondence to Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816, Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia,
http://wiki.monticello.org/ mediawiki /index.php/Quotations_on_Education#_note-6 [accessed September 23, 2010
].

5
Trevor Colbourn, ed.,
Fame and the Founding Fathers: Essays by Douglass Adair
(Liberty Fund, 1974).

6
Alexis De Tocqueville,
Democracy in America
(Regnery Gateway Editions, 2002).

7
See Jay P. Greene’s excellent
Education Myths
(Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005).

8
Jay P. Greene,
op. cit
.

9
Editorial, “Can Louisiana education reform survive teachers’ union assault?”
Washington Post
, May 1, 2010; available at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043002132.html
[accessed September 14, 2010].

10
Paul Ciotti, “The Wrong Approach,”
Tampa Tribune
, March 30, 1996; and John Taylor Gatto,
The Underground History of American Education
(New York: Oxford Village Press, 2000).

11
See Kathryn G. Newmark and Veronique De Rugy, “Hope After Katrina,”
Education Next
, Fall 2006; available at:
http://educationnext.org/hope-after-katrina/
[accessed September 14, 2010].

12
Ibid. See also “New Orleans Schools Before and After Katrina Hit,” PBS
News Hour with Jim Lehrer
, November 1, 2005; available at:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec05/neworleans_11-01.html
[accessed September 14, 2010]. See also Joanne Jacobs,“F Is For Valedictorian,”
Fox News, August 17, 2003; available at:
http://www.foxnews
. com/story/0,2933,94864,00.html [accessed September 23, 2010].

13
Paul E. Peterson, “Learning from Catastrophe Theory: What New Orleans Tells Us about Our Education Future,”
Education Next
, vol. 6, no. 4 (2006); available at:
http://educationnext.org/learning-from-catastrophe-theory/
[accessed September 14, 2010]; and Kathryn Newmark and Veronique de Rugy, “Hope after Katrina: Will New Orleans Become the New City of Choice?”
op. cit
. See also, Kathryn G. Newmark and Veronique De Rugy, “Hope after Katrina,”
Education Next
, Fall 2006; available at:
http://educationnext.org/hope-after-katrina/
[accessed September 23, 2010].