When Does A Leader Need To Be Removed?

You awaken in the middle of the night to the smell of burning wood.  You get up and quickly run through your home to see if you can find the source of the burning wood smell.  As you pass a window, you notice that your neighbor's house has a little bit of smoke leaking out of an upstairs bedroom window.  You call 911 to report a house fire, frantically trying to summon help.

After reporting the fire, you then call your neighbor's house to awaken them in an attempt get them out of the house.  The neighbor answers the telephone but states he can't access the rest of the bedrooms in the house where his family is located and he, himself, is trapped inside due to fire.  The situation is quickly becoming dire.

As you run out of your house to see if you can help somehow, the Fire Chief pulls up in his Chief's vehicle.  He orders you to stay away from the house.  As you try to get past the Chief, a fire truck (a ladder company) and an engine pull up (pumper for pumping water) and all the firefighters quickly egress their trucks awaiting the Chief's orders.  

Everyone is just standing around waiting for someone else to speak up to prompt the Chief to make a decision and start giving orders.  Unfortunately, the Chief just nonchalantly stares at the fire as though he were sitting comfortably beside a cozy campfire.  The fire spreads to another window.  More smoke is now leaking from both windows.  You begin screaming that there is a family in there and they are in danger of dying.  The Chief sort of smirks and he looks around at his firefighters.  

You finally prompt the Chief to respond to your agonizing pleas for help and he orders his newest firefighter to take charge.  This new firefighter, although well-intentioned and eager, has absolutely no experience in house fires and little to no leadership experience.  The new firefighter requests that his team of experienced firefighters deploy ladders and hoses.  The Chief inexplicably and immediately barks that these firefighters are not to be utilized, not to use his hoses, not to use his ladders.  He simply advises that the new firefighter finds help from the neighbors and advises they use the neighbors' garden hoses.    

You look up at the bedroom windows again in complete horror as you see one of the children trying to unlock the window in a frantic attempt to escape the death trap.  Then, the child falls to the floor, out of view from the street as flames nip at the glass and black soot covers the inside of the window.  

Everyone watching this tragedy unfold before their eyes can see that the neighbors' hoses are not nearly enough to put a stop to this horrific tragedy.  These garden hoses are too few and too small for the job.  

The smoke is getting heavier and heavier and the fire is slowly spreading through the house.  Now every window on the second floor is leaking smoke.  One window cracks and the fire combusts into an inferno as it gets oxygen.  You can hear people screaming inside the house and you can hear them slamming objects against doors in a desperate attempt to free themselves from the new raging inferno.  

The newest firefighter then asks the Chief to reconsider his order to not use their ladders, hoses and all the professional tools of the trade at their disposal.  He questions why he can't utilize the skills and manpower of the rest of his professional firefighters.  The Chief glares at the new and inexperienced firefighter and tells him he is no longer in charge.  The Chief then calls his buddy who owns the local Edward Jones Investments office and, to the astonishment of everyone present, he asks his buddy to come to this tragic scene to lead his new response team.

Investments Guy arrives within moments.  He asks about using the fire trucks and the ladders, hoses and tools on those emergency vehicles and is immediately told that they cannot use the Chief's firefighting equipment nor can he utilize the Chief's professional firefighters.  He orders Investments Guy to tell the neighbors to find their own hoses, ladders and tools from their own homes.  Investments Guy orders the nearest neighbors to find ladders, hoses, tools and water as the firefighters just stand around watching helplessly.  

In the meantime, you hear more screams and pleas for help coming from inside the burning house.  You hear someone else succumbing to the smoke and fire as they let out a blood-curdling scream.  Within a few short moments, the screams turn to silence as another in the burning house succumbs to this disaster.

Now flames are burning through the roof and beginning to illuminate the darkness just above the roofline like a beacon warning the entire neighborhood of impending doom.  Smoke is billowing out of the burning holes in the roof now.  Within a few short minutes, the house is fully involved and engulfed in flames.  A few short minutes after that, the heat, burning embers and flames ignite the two houses on each side of the burning house as well as the house behind the burning house.  The firefighters again turn to the Chief to await orders but, rather than get down to serious business and finally do his job as an effective leader, the Chief then starts boasting about how everyone in town adores him and other irrelevant nonsense.  

Getting nowhere with the Chief, the firefighters turn to Investments Guy for guidance and leadership.  Unfortunately, now Investments Guy is parroting the same nonsensical boasts about how everyone adores the Chief and how the Chief has done such a great job.  We all should be thankful for the Chief and what he has already done.  After all, he was the first on the scene and he is the Chief.  

To everyone's horror, the fire continues to spread from house to house.  More people are dying a gruesome death as other neighbors watch helplessly.  Some neighbors manage to escape their burning homes, stumbling and collapsing to the ground near their burning homes.  Neighbors try to go to their side to help but the heat from the fires is too much to get within a few feet of them.  With every new home that catches fire, the number of people harmed increases exponentially.  Ambulances begin to arrive but there are far more people needing help than there are ambulances and EMTs.  This disaster has quickly become dire.

When the firefighters turn back to the Chief, he is still rambling on and on about how much everyone adores him and how incredible he is at being the Chief.  He is oblivious to all those dying around him.  He is oblivious to the pleas of those awaiting orders to help.  He is oblivious to seemingly everything in the real world enveloping him.  To the astonishment of everyone within listening distance, he proclaims that this ravaging and spreading fire will miraculously extinguish itself and just go away before we know it.  

Now a mass of reporters and photographers is beginning to arrive.  They know that the source of credible information will come from the On-Scene Commander so these eager reporters and photojournalists surround the Chief and begin asking questions seeking credible information, expertise and even comfort in the face of this uncontrolled, ravaging disaster.  Unfortunately, the Chief only continues to boast about how everyone adores him as he poses for photos and rambles incessantly.

The firefighters can't help but turn toward the entire block of homes that are fully engulfed because stopping this sort of disaster is what they are trained to do, they are highly trained to fight these types of ravaging fires and they are trained to protect neighborhoods just like the one being destroyed before their eyes.  They hear the screams of all the people dying a horrible death.  They see home after home being destroyed by fire.  They see the injured filling all the available cool spots on the ground around them, some charred, some gasping for air.   The Chief is now boasting about how he has all the best ladders, the best hoses, the best firehouses, and that he is far smarter than everyone else as people are dying in all the houses he has sworn to keep safe.  

Meanwhile, the experienced and highly trained firefighters have their hands tied by the Chief.  The firefighters are helpless as they wring their hands and shake their heads in disbelief.  They know they have the skills, experience, knowledge and equipment to minimize this quickly spreading disaster but their hands are tied by the Chief.  

Investments Guy is now talking to the reporters and photographers as the Chief looks on from his side.  Investments Guy is now speaking in circular techno-babble, not answering any questions but only babbling in rather vague, semi-related contradictions in an attempt to keep the Chief from noticing that he might be disagreeing with the Chief.  Investments Guy seems to be using more energy to deceive the reporters as well as deceive the Chief than he would putting energy toward actual progress in containing, extinguishing and recovering this crisis.

Investments Guy continues to advise the neighbors that they need to get their own ladders and their own hoses.  "This is your neighborhood!  Go find your own tools, your own hoses, your own ladders in your own homes."  He somehow has the gall to tell the neighbors that they should figure out a way to make their own hoses even though everyone knows that the Fire Chief has professional equipment and the means to procure better hoses just for occasions such as this.  

Meanwhile, the neighborhood is now a burning inferno that keeps spreading more and more quickly.  People are dying all around.  With every passing moment of inaction, even more people are suffering and injured as the Chief, who is the defacto On-Scene Commander, continues to boast about how everyone adores him and that he has all the best tools.  Every now and then he also goes on a rant about how the neighborhood dogs are at fault for this disaster because they leave combustible methane gases in the air whenever they poop on the lawn.  He blames the homeowners for not raking their yards more meticulously of flammable leaves and pine needles as he blames them for this viral-like devastating inferno overwhelming the entire neighborhood.  He always turns back to how much of an incredible job he has done in fighting this overwhelming catastrophe even though the scene surrounding him clearly proves otherwise.

One of the firefighters mentions that perhaps one of them should take control of the scene.  Another firefighter and bystanders immediately jump in to suggest that this is not the time to remove the On-Scene Commander from his job.  After all, something like that should wait until after this is over when we have more time...  "this isn't the time".  

Honestly, does any of this make any sense to anyone out there?  Wake up and smell the coffee, people!  

Why is this Fire Chief leading specialists, or anyone, in a crisis?  Why is this Fire Chief left in charge as this disaster overwhelms and kills?  Should everyone wait until after the entire neighborhood burns down, kills neighbors, and injures the rest of the neighbors before removing the Chief as the absolute authority and leader?  

The answer in any real-world crisis situation is that it would be absolutely, completely and unequivocally absurd to leave this Fire Chief in charge (as well as those who defended him and stood behind him).  The sooner this ineffectual Chief is removed from his or her position, the sooner the disaster can be controlled and an effective recovery can begin.  The sooner this ineffectual Chief is removed, the less the neighborhood will be hurt.  The sooner this ineffectual Chief is removed, the less damage, destruction and death there will be and, therefore, recovery will be exponentially more effective.  The sooner this ineffectual Fire Chief is removed, the less the Chief will collaterally embarrass the professional firefighters who are effectively and highly trained in these sorts of crises.

I applied this ridiculously absurd analogy to firefighting but this can just as easily be applied to a law enforcement situation, our military, an emergency department at a hospital, or even the corporate boardroom.  No matter how we apply this analogy, common sense always tells us that if there was ever a best time to remove an ineffectual or ineffective leader, it is when the leader proves he or she is incapable of leading in a crisis or incapable of leading at a time when a true leader is what is needed the most.  If lives are at stake or, worse yet, being taken due to this inaction and ineffectual leadership, then the ineffectual leader must be removed even more swiftly.  Time is of the essence.   

For those who don't see the analogy here, my guess is you probably think our buffoon of a President is doing an "incredible job", "a perfect job" (in his own superlatives) so I will have to spell it out.  

The Fire Chief represents our current buffoon in the Oval Office.  The spreading fire is COVID-19.  The 911 Dispatcher is the World Health Organization and the world's doctors who warned of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The neighborhood is the United States.  Each neighbor's home is each State.  Investments Guy is any of the unqualified administration leaders our President tends to hire.  The firefighters are our talented and experienced federal employees and our highly trained Department of Defense.  The EMTs are actually our EMTs and hospital staff.  Beautifully, this scenario can be an analogy for any type of national crisis under our current leadership.  We've seen it happen many times already in the past three years.  Now, however, people are dying.

So, when does a leader need to be removed?  A leader needs to be removed the moment there is a loss of confidence in his or her ability to effectively lead those around him or her through any crisis.  A leader needs to be removed immediately when his or her ineffectual actions results in death.  The longer you wait to stop this ineffectual leadership, the more damage will be done and the more difficult it will be to recover.  I can tell you from my own experiences throughout my own career that if this were a situation in the federal government or Department of Defense or even any local Fire Department rather than the situation we're watching play out in the White House everyday, I can say with absolute certainty that this leader (the Fire Chief in the analogy) would have been removed the moment he tied the hands of his firefighters...  even before anyone died. 

To those arguing that this is not the time to remove the President, I beg to differ and this analogy proves why.  My primary school aged grandchildren would decisively understand this simple exercise in morality and effective leadership.  This IS the time to remove our President from office.  You NEVER wait when people's lives are at risk as a result of poor leadership, inaction or negligence.  Our President should have been removed from office at the first sign of inaction to this worldwide pandemic which would have been no later than the end of January.  The Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch should have acted quickly on this (remember that our country is supposed to have an effective system of checks and balances...  where are those checks and balances?).  The White House failed the people.  The Legislative Branch failed the people.  The Judicial Branch failed the people.

This spreading pandemic was abundantly obvious to the entire world by early January when the news hit the presses.  Even I read medical abstracts I found online in late December telling of how this new virus is highly contagious and deadly so I know the President was briefed on this matter in a very timely fashion (likely sometime in December).  By late January, it was obvious that immediate and drastic federal leadership action was necessary which would swiftly invoke and involve all appropriate federal contingency plans and skilled response teams.  Arguably none, or at least very little, of this has happened while tens of thousands of people are still dying and millions continue to suffer and struggle.

Anyone saying this isn't the time to remove our ineffectual leader (as well as those standing by him, defending him) from power is a bit naive, probably a bit ignorant and clearly knows nothing about effective leadership nor integrity.  All three branches of our revered and unique government are failing the people.