{"id":3109,"date":"2008-12-20T10:55:18","date_gmt":"2008-12-20T15:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=3109"},"modified":"2008-12-20T15:57:47","modified_gmt":"2008-12-20T20:57:47","slug":"lee-iacocca-wheres-the-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2008\/12\/lee-iacocca-wheres-the-outrage\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Iacocca: Where’s the Outrage?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Sinclair’s MineSet<\/a> | Lee Iacocca | Dec. 20, 2008<\/p>\n

Lee Iacocca writes: Am I the only guy in this country who\u2019s fed up with what\u2019s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We\u2019ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we\u2019ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can\u2019t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”<\/p>\n

Stay the course? You\u2019ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I\u2019ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out! <\/p>\n

You might think I\u2019m getting senile, that I\u2019ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.<\/p>\n

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we\u2019re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That\u2019s not the promise of the “America” my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I\u2019ve had enough. How about you?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll go a step further. You can\u2019t call yourself a patriot if you\u2019re not outraged. This is a fight I\u2019m ready and willing to have.<\/p>\n

The Biggest “C” is Crisis!<\/strong>
\nLeaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It\u2019s easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else\u2019s kids off to war when you\u2019ve never seen a battlefield yourself. It\u2019s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down. George Bush, Dick Cheney and who is this bozo coming up next? One of the most liberal idiots in the US Senate, and he is talking about disarming America. I can\u2019t believe the American people aren\u2019t seeing what he is about to do to this country. May God have mercy on us all.<\/p>\n

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A hell of a mess. So here\u2019s where we stand. We\u2019re immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We\u2019re running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We\u2019re losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are all moving offshore. We\u2019re getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are the worst in the world. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership and we are getting ready to put the most liberal senator in the US Senate in as our next president because we want to be fair and elect someone just because of his race? We don\u2019t have time to be fair, we need a strong leader.<\/p>\n

But when you look around, you\u2019ve got to ask: “Where have all the leaders gone?” Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I hope you get the point.<\/p>\n

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We\u2019ve spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.<\/p>\n

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone\u2019s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn\u2019t happen again. Well guess what, people? We are having more floods right now. What are we doing to help these people out? Now, that\u2019s just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you\u2019re going to do the next time. Why are we allowing people to build in flood plains anyway? If you build in a flood area, expect to be flooded and deal with it. Don\u2019t expect the Government to bail you out.<\/p>\n

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. All they seem to be thinking nowadays is getting themselves bigger salaries and bonuses. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when “The Big Three” referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it? Likely nothing!<\/p>\n

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry. I have news for the gang in Congress and the Senate. We didn\u2019t elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don\u2019t you guys show some spine for a change? I honestly don\u2019t think any of you have one!<\/p>\n

Had Enough?<\/strong>
\nHey, I\u2019m not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I\u2019m trying to light a fire. I\u2019m speaking out because I have hope; I believe in America. In my lifetime I\u2019ve had the privilege of living through some of America\u2019s greatest moments. I\u2019ve also experienced some of our worst crises: the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy Assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970’s oil crisis and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9\/11. If I\u2019ve learned one thing, it\u2019s this:<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it\u2019s building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That\u2019s the challenge I\u2019m raising in this book. It\u2019s a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It\u2019s not too late, but it\u2019s getting pretty close. So let\u2019s shake off the crap and go to work. Let\u2019s tell \u2018em all we\u2019ve had enough.<\/p>\n

. . . more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim Sinclair’s MineSet | Lee Iacocca | Dec. 20, 2008 Lee Iacocca writes: Am I the only guy in this country who\u2019s fed up with what\u2019s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We\u2019ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[88,87,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalism","category-economics","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}