Former President Trump was endangered by a would-be assassin twice recently, and everybody is suddenly an expert in the work of the Secret Service. I, too, am highly critical of their performance in the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting, but I am much, much less critical of their performance in the Florida near-shooting. I agree with the Secret Service’s appraisal of Butler and believe that some of the weaknesses reflected in it have been addressed, the principal one being the removal of the former head of that agency.
Public outrage focuses on specific details in both situations. Communications in Butler being a popular item and failure to sweep the edge of the golf course in Florida being a leading contender there. The public then goes on to bemoan the inadequacy of whatever - inadequate manpower, and insufficient funds being high on everybody’s list. (America actually believes that lots of people and money solves problems.) These are indeed important points, but the far more important point is the quality of the leadership of the organization. I don’t care how smart you and I think that we are, we are not smart enough to improve the performance of the Secret Service, beyond finding the right person to lead it and giving him or her the support that is necessary to do the job, however we end up defining it.
I am conservative in my thinking. I believe that assigning WOK leadership, ensures inadequate WOK results. If I were in a position of influence, I would assign an individual that has real world experience in dealing successfully with the very real, very shitty world that today threatens nice people. I would be far less interested in his or her ability to fill one of the WOK checkboxes. In this regard, Google tells me: “In 2023, Cheatle (the former head of the Secret Service) told CBS News the agency needed to “attract diverse candidates and give opportunities to everybody in the workforce, particularly women,’ outlining her goal that by 2030, thirty percent of its recruits would be female.” I don’t know anything about this lady, but I strongly suspect that she, like many of the other people in high office today, were selected for the wrong reasons. I’m not saying that they are bad people - just that they are out of their depth and in the wrong job.
If I were in a position of authority, I would look to personnel that have a background in real-world killing - old-fashioned police, special forces, etc, - people that can provide the type of thinking and experience necessary to deal effectively with the mind of their adversary, as well as his or her tactics. A rule book is nice to have, but it can only do so much. The leader that I envision would not need a congressional inquiry to look into mistakes. He or she would be on the perpetrators before they could turn around and would address the problem immediately in the field - not back in the office around a conference table.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Biden has taken this exact approach to every aspect of our governance - and our defense. It is a principal reason why nothing works anymore. Very nice, very articulate, very well-meaning people in all of the wrong jobs. Kamala Harris explains that she will continue the stupidity.
The dilemma that America faces goes well beyond the immediate challenges. It is that we are consciously breeding the type of individual that we need out of our society, in favor of folks who have better social skills. When the bastards come for us we will face them with better table manners and wonder confusedly why it does us no good.
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