What Comes Around Goes Around

I do not like to dwell or brag about past successes. I do not keep trophies, awards, and certificates. I do not like to boast about my favorite teams successes. But I notice most people are opposite to how feel about these matters. Maybe this behavior is partly due to the narcissistic nature of society these days. I am not sure why, but my belief is when you gloat and boast about successes it usually comes at someone else’s expense. I think once you are satisfied with our past or present accomplishments we lose focus on the future. And this seems to be a glaring issue with leadership today – the lack of strategic vision. Leaders seem to be more focused on current issues and their own self than to properly lay out future goals and missions. Someone asked me “Why didn’t you gloat about your team winning the Super Bowl last year?” I said because it is just one year (short lived) and usually what comes around goes around. And sure enough they did not even make the playoffs this year. It simply makes little sense to boast at someone else’s expense. I think many people are sore losers, but what is becoming more apparent to me is that we are also sore winners. We need to respect adversaries and not hate them. Otherwise the result is power grabs, gloating, lack of accountability, lack of strategic vision, lack of responsibility, finding blame, and finding fault.

Congress is no exception to these rules. Obama supporters are gloating over his win on the fiscal cliff even without understanding the implications this new legislation will have on the American people. Now Harry Reid wants to change Senate rules on filibusters. The Party in power always wants more power. Unfortunately, what these power hungry politicians forget is that their Party will not always be in the majority and those rules they passed will be advantageous to their opponents once they are in charge.

Liberals were outraged by Bush and Cheney power grabs to expand the powers of the executive branch. But they sit quiet as the Obama administration has expanded the powers of the executive branch by moving unilaterally (avoiding Congressional approval) and passing executive orders on education, war, and immigration. Obama has appointed Czars who have no oversight. Obama’s cabinet is passing a handful of new rules each day without any debate. The administration is hiding behind executive privilege. And ObamaCare was passed without the required 60 votes in the Senate.

Liberals may be enjoying the progressive power grab. However, what they fail to understand is that once a Conservative is in power they can easily rescind executive orders. A Conservative President or Senate could someday reap the benefits of the power grabs made by liberal majorities. People seem to forget what comes around goes around.

I have always said that there are three things that define the character of people – how they deal with adversity, how they deal with success, and how they behave when put in a position of power. It seems most people are shortsighted when they deal with success and power. They are narcissistic and want to expand their power without considering the future implications of their actions.