Wherefore Art Thou, Leadership? Lessons From Eisenhower and Polio On The Covid-19 Crisis

When Eisenhower spoke on the polio vaccine it wasn’t just his words but his reputation and application of leadership that would be needed to carry the day.

FDR and Eisenhower. Photo by Series: Photographs of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882–1945Collection: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Photographs, 1870–2004, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A few days ago our friend Eric Garcia posed a question on Twitter that was rattling around in my mind anyway, but I’ve really been pondering ever since:

What has become painfully obvious, or at least painful to the average American trying to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic heading into a third affected school year, is the difference between governing and leading. America in the Year of Our Lord 2021 has an abundance of the former, and a shocking lack of the latter.

Just exercising power is not, in and of itself, leadership. Leadership is not the wielding of power; it’s the art of wielding power to effective ends. Or, as it was explained to me over and over again growing up, leadership is getting people to do things, good…