I Can Lead This Country?

Sometimes I feel like other people must be getting some other meaning out of the words I am hearing.  The things people are saying make no sense to me.

Today Marco Rubio announced he is running for election as President of the United States, saying "I can lead this country."

This sentence makes absolutely no sense to me, at least if it's supposed to inspire me to support Mr. Rubio.  Am I supposed to think that what "this country" is lacking is leadership?  Is that supposed to be something we all agree is the great need right now - leadership?

It sounds just like panel nine in this illustrated abridgement of F. A. Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom."  If you haven't read that, you really should, and you might follow up by reading Economics in One Lesson by the brilliant Henry Hazlitt.

In my mind, nobody educated is looking for "leadership."  The main problem we are facing is not a lack of leadership - it's the presence of leadership.  Unfortunately we are not free to prosper; we are beholden to a parasitic ruler class that styles itself "leaders" and wrongly fancies itself our benefactors.

I know what I want to do, and for the most part I know how to achieve it, and when I do not know, I know who I like to ask for help.  I don't need to be led.  It's extremely patronizing for anyone to think we will be inspired to like them when they offer to lead us.

So why isn't everybody up in arms about it?