OPINION: Lack of leaders plague national landscape

This isn’t a political party issue. It’s bigger than Democrats or Republicans. Even if Tea Party candidates grab a few seats in Congress, it won’t take long before they, too, forget about the rest of America as they further their own self- interests.

The reality is, America’s largest institutions are failing. From Congress to Wall Street to major corporations, greed and corruption are undermining the fabric of American society.

The economic crash of the past three years wasn’t due to some fluke; it was the direct result of greed, fraud, corruption and stupidity. It didn’t have to happen, but so many parts of the economic system were broken that the weight of the avarice caved in on itself.

And Congress didn’t have to put this nation into extreme debt over the last two years, but it did because of political greed.

As a result of all that, Americans have lost faith in these core institutions. The Tea Party is just a small part of the backlash; the real backlash hasn’t even begun.

And that’s a problem. Many people sense that something big is brewing in this nation — that a historic moment is at hand. Some think that will take place in November with the elections.

But even if the GOP takes Congress with the help of the Tea Party faithful, it won’t change the underlying dynamics of Washington. Both political parties are guilty of abuse and neglect — changing the hats in the seats won’t solve the problem.

This nation is a tinder box today, closer to some kind of political revolution than at any time in the past 100 years.

All it would take is some kind of major event to spark what could be a dangerous path for this country. A major terrorism hit; another crash of the Stock Market; nut-cases bent on political killings.

The real problem here is that there is no leader on the horizon who seems to have the ability to lead the nation out of this morass. There is a leadership void today and in that kind of environment, people often turn to demagogues for a solution.

We live in precarious times. It didn’t have to be this way, but our political and economic leaders failed us.

Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow Journal. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.