As the society has gotten larger and more complex, individuals have lost their ability to influence any of the institutions that affect their lives. |
The endorsement of respected conservative Republican officeholders and politicians is particularly important at this time as to destroy Reagan's credibility as a loyal Republican. |
Without a Mayaguez, or something comparable that we don't see in the immediate future, there is probably no one thing the President can do to himself to turn this situation around. |
People feel that decisions about their jobs, the way their children are educated, how their church functions, and products they buy are made by someone and some place so distant that they can't find anybody to talk to that has any influence over them. |
Research has shown that the perceived style of leadership is by far the most important thing to most voters in evaluating officeholders and candidates. |
The President's political travel is going to get blamed (and probably rightly) for a share of this downturn. |
Also the fact that anything he does is seen and heard by the entire country, not just his actual audience or those who live in the region he happens to be in. |
We should remember the campaign advertising will be only a smaller portion of the President's total exposure. |
This has resulted in more and more people becoming inner-directed and having as their only goal, getting as much as they can get out of the system and putting as little into it as possible. |
There needs to be a planned series of speeches, interviews, etc., over the next two or three months by administration officials and other public figures talking about President Ford, what he is trying to do and what he has accomplished. |
Whatever he does should be seen as working at the Presidency and if he goes to Colorado for Christmas, it should be for a minimum amount of time, the family tradition and family get-together aspect emphasized, and it be seen as a working vacation. |
It is my belief that it is not the fact that he traveled as much as he did during the past few months as much as what he said and how he said it that hurt him. |
We have for the past year and undoubtedly will be for the next year, dealing with an electorate that is more alienated and more cynical than at any point in modern time. |
The President, the Administration and the campaign need a theme. I am concerned that the President is seen as a tactician without an overall strategy of his plan for the country. |
Every person has only so much attention to give, and politics and government takes up only a fraction of what it did 25 years ago. |
While these attitudes are more visible when direct- ed at government, there is ample evidence that many working people distrust their own union as much as they do the corporation they work for. |
This is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, but I think it once again points out how very important style of leadership, that is the way he does what he does, is to his perception. |
Many citizens see all the leadership of these large institutions together in a conspiracy against them rather than in any adversary relationship with each other. |
Another cause for the increase in alienation and cynicism is a feeling that too many policy decisions that affect individuals have been taken out of any system that has accountability or that they can influence. |
We need a little more 'Hail to the Chief.' |