January 28, 2025

It is no use blowing the trumpet for the charge, and then looking around to find nobody following.

Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), British Liberal politician, in Winston Churchill (1875–1965), Great Contemporaries (1937), Jay p.80

In a democracy, is this not every leader’s quandary: how far can I risk getting out in front of some issue (to reap credit for my prescience before some colleague tries to grab it as their own), so that I can lead, without being left, not behind, but too far ahead to be followed?

One of the charms of the platonic ideal of dictatorship is the idea that one person can make the decision and everyone else will agree. These days, with normal partisan divides aggravated by cultural wars, dictatorship is increasing in appeal as we abandon any belief in the possibility of commonly agreed upon action on any score.