# Leaders or Managers - Who Runs America - Response By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2025-09-23 John F. Kennedy wrote _Profiles in Courage_ in 1956. His book became a bestseller. The book offers insight into politicians who demonstrated political courage by defying their party or public pressure. If politicians were commonly courageous in this sense, there would have been little need for a book profiling the contours of the concept. The writing of the book betrays a perceived need to valorize courageous politicians. The popularity of the work suggests the public’s desire for something better, something more noble, than is commonly provided to them through the process of electoral politics. There is longstanding tension between management and leadership. Many managers fancy themselves as leaders. Some leaders are constrained by their managerial and administrative functions. Most individuals are neither managers nor leaders. Many are managers. A few are both. Almost none are leaders. Managers in government and society are necessary. They keep the trains running on time. The role of leadership is more problematic and potentially asymmetric. The two parties (i.e., conservative and progressive) operate differently in terms of leadership. In fact, one might consider the notion of a “conservative leader” paradoxical if not oxymoronic. Leadership is unnecessary for maintaining the status quo, that is, for the conservation of the way things are. Conservative policy can be administered managerially. Consequently, it is perhaps the case that all leadership is progressive, if not revolutionary. Finding a leader on a list of US Presidents is like searching for a pauper on a list of capitalists. One might enjoy the exercise of going through the list, but what is desired can only be found elsewhere. US Presidents are elites but not leaders. They are each, regardless of party, the selected rhetorical icon representing the legitimacy of a socially accepted system of subjugation and exploitation. If leaders are sought, one must look elsewhere. America has a long list of leaders. If one is interested in finding them, all one needs to do is go through the list of people whom our government has assassinated. Our leaders haven’t gone anywhere. We have had them. We still have them. They are simply marginalized by design and course. A common thread between the past and the present is that revolutionary leaders are often killed in the ongoing maintenance of the status quo. #### Related Items [[Leadership]] [[Politics]] [[American]] [[Management]] [[Revolution]] [[Courage]] [[Government]]