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The first few weeks of the legislative session have left KSL with the impression the State of Utah is in the throes of a discouraging leadership vacuum.
At a critical juncture in the state’s history when key decisions are needed to map a realistic pathway to the future, no individual or group is leading the way.
Sadly, Utah has a legislature that is more consumed with acrimony than statesmanship. The tendency to be vindictive and accusatory supplants efforts to be conciliatory and compromising. Far too many lawmakers are bent on achieving ideological victories than in problem solving for the common good.
Some politicians try to step out ahead of the rest. It is one thing to generate ideas and come up with imaginative proposals; it is quite another to have the political savvy and leadership moxie to build manageable coalitions in order to achieve results.
Effective political leadership, indeed statesmanship, requires consensus building and the ability to guide public opinion. It focuses on the end product more than worrying about who gets credit. It involves an innate desire to humbly serve humanity without lusting for power. It responds to enormous challenges with the visionary conviction that palatable solutions are within reach.
KSL worries many of Utah’s most pressing problems won’t to be adequately solved without such leadership.
