House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's recent disgrace has served to emphasize that America is suffering from a crippling deficit of leadership. Our government, from the federal to the local level, is paralyzed by politicians who are far from able or deserving.

The leadership deficit is not limited to a single political party. For every Tom DeLay, there is a James Traficant (the former Democratic congressman from Ohio who is now in jail). Indeed, leadership from both parties may have a hand in the current crop of poor leaders. Both parties have taken to encouraging and backing party sycophants to run for office to serve as cannon fodder to widen the polarizing and self-destructive culture wars.

One need not to look any further than Wisconsin to witness the effects of self-serving politicians. Within Milwaukee County alone, four prominent politicians — three Milwaukee aldermen and a state senator — have been indicted and/or sent to prison for various forms of corruption. While Milwaukee County suffers from high rates of poverty, high crime rates and an embarrassingly ineffective sewage system, many of its leaders chose to engage in petty partisan wrangling and to line their pockets.

Not only are small-minded and corrupt politicians embarrassing, but their actions have grave real-world consequences for those they claim to serve.

The devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina are a fine example of how a deficit of leadership can lead to a betrayal of the public trust. The damage that a category three, or higher, hurricane could inflict on New Orleans had been forecasted by numerous studies since the early 1980's. The federal government was compelled by those studies to allocate millions of dollars to improve the antiquated levee system. Following Katrina, and the collapse of the levees, it was abundantly clear that the state legislators, and city officials of New Orleans, had spent the previous two decades squandering the federal money (indeed, no one is quite sure how or when the money was spent except that it was not spent on the levees) on pork-projects and bickering and baiting each other over less important matters. Even now, rather than assume the blame for Katrina, many Louisiana and New Orleans politicians have been making use of every excuse in the book, including a shameless attempt at playing the race-card, to blame everyone for the disaster but themselves. Their actions underline the damage a group of self-serving, career opportunists can bring when acting in the guise of responsible leaders.

The American people, and closer to home, the people of Wisconsin, deserve better. They deserve leaders, not politicians, who will promote the public good and deliver sound government. The process starts with the private citizen; the citizen with strength of character and conviction who will no longer stand idly by and allow corrupt opportunists and yes-men to assume offices of power. Most importantly, the voters must demand more from their leaders. If a politician does not meet a standard of good representation, the voters mustn't hesitate to sweep him or her out of office. The leadership deficit can only be bridged when the public demands more from their leaders. The public must come to believe that they don't have to settle for anything less than good government.

This viewpoint was published in The Marquette Tribune on October 25, 2005.