by Norman Halls, contributor
Loyalty demands a two-way street. The other person must hold up their end of the bargain by finding ways to contribute to the creation of real value. The definition of loyalty is the quality of staying firm in your friendship or support for someone or something. Loyalty is not a given – like trust, it needs to be earned. To advance a strategy for loyalty, one must first understand how to convey allegiance into the here and now for the supporters. Understanding the science behind demonstrating the greatest potential is key to the change of future leaders their personality traits.
“Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice.”
Woodrow T. Wilson
But loyalty is a two-way street: employers who show their staff little loyalty can expect less in return. Bosses should be consistent and do what they expect their employees to do. And whatever it is they do, they should do it with enthusiasm. When we talk about loyalty, many leaders believe that their staff should show loyalty to them, and in return for this loyalty, they will benefit. But unfortunately, this is not how it always works. I always believe that loyalty starts with the leader, we are the ones with the power, the ones who set the tone. Real loyalty comes from how we treat people, from the trust and the respect that we have earned, and in how loyal we are to our principles, and whether we are authentic or not. House Republicans should prepare? for even more damaging revelations as their loyalty to the president is weaning off.
As leaders if we want loyalty, then we need to show loyalty. We need to support our people, stand up for them when they need support, protect and take care of them, show them that we care with authenticity. When we do this, we can build a very strong bond of loyalty, one that will be there when we need the support of our people. If we choose to wait to build loyalty until we need it, then likely we won’t get the support that we need.
Trump’s growing isolation is a creation of his political inexperience—a dislike of the norms of the legislative process. Loyalist have jointly plotted their attack lines and political stunts, shortly after the conservative group won the majority. Trump does not manage, he bullies. There are sources of concern on the horizon that the loyalist can’t intervene. The economy is one area, though still holding overall, but The G.D.P. has slowed down in the 4th quarter of 2018 to 2.6 percent, expects growth will be slower in 2019.
Many call out the United States for having a dysfunctional system. The Republicans and Democrats are hell bent on vilifying each other’s party. Ours’s is a two-party system which causes gridlock. Politicians’ loyalty is by and large to the party, the donors and the base, not the citizenry.
We have it on considerable authority that Donald Trump demands unconditional loyalty from subordinates. It is partially why he’s been so slow in filling positions in his administration: The Boss can’t have any of the many Republicans who said less than positive things about him before he rose to the presidential nomination. “The president has a congenital inability to take personal responsibility for his own mistakes. Throughout his career, he’s sought out scapegoats whenever situations get hairy. Trump is the president, not ‘the CEO,’ of the United States. This is a meaningful distinction. The federal government does not belong to Trump. It is not a family business. Or even a publicly traded corporation with a board of directors. There are checks and balances. There are courts and Congress. There are laws designed to prevent obstruction of justice.” Wrote Susan Milligan USNEWS
You cannot buy loyalty; you cannot buy the devotion of hearts, minds, and souls. You have to earn these things. Clarence Francis
“This is where we are with political polarization. You would not see this voluntarily blind following in a less polarized environment,” says Javier Corrales, a political science professor at Amherst College and an expert on democracy, authoritarian regimes and executive power. “The Republican Party has turned into a Leninist party in terms of discipline and support for their leader. It almost feels like this is not a [small-d] democratic party anymore,” Corrales says.
“Many Republicans won’t criticize Trump even when they don’t agree with him because, it means siding with a media that never cuts him a break, turns even little things he does into an act of evil, are also unfair to them & in the end will still attack you anyway,” the Florida lawmaker Senator Marco Rubio wrote.
Don’t look now, but some Republicans are beginning to develop spines. Many in the GOP have long criticized President Donald Trump’s crude behavior and unorthodox way of governing. But mostly they’ve done it in whispers, off the record and away from the television cameras. In recent weeks, however, Republicans have begun criticizing Trump sharply in public. For instance, the chairmen of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Appropriations committees, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Richard Shelby of Alabama, respectively, went on TV this month and chided Trump for belittling top U.S. intelligence officials. “These people have the real knowledge and you have to listen to them,” Johnson said on Fox News.
Republicans must choose between Trump and the Rule of Law. The politics of the circumstances, including both the President’s popularity and his reputation, will matter just as much as, if not more than, any particular facts or evidence about the case. Will loyalty for the President win or will the tide turn? Alan C. Raul wrote, “We cannot afford to tolerate disrespect for fundamental legal norms such as universal accountability under the law, impartial enforcement of justice, and the system of checks and balances designed by the Framers of the Constitution.
