Rush Limbaugh and his ideological allies in the Republican Party argue that they are hoping Obama will fail. They attack every step of Obama's efforts to turn the economy around. They don't understand that the economic threat to the future of America is far worse than any Al Qaeda threat. Instead, they choose to advocate FOR their failed ideology by attacking Obama's efforts. The thing is, Obama's efforts are now the United States' efforts and when they root for Obama's failure and attack his efforts, they are attacking the people's hopes, confidence and trust.
The fact is that we are seeing the failure of trust when we see the absence of liquidity in lending between banks. We're seeing failure of trust when small businesses can no longer borrow to finance receivables. We needed the $700 billion bailout and the $780 stimulus, but they were not enough. Without trust, the money doesn't move. As one twitterer, Robert Lett said, "Scared money makes no money."
The Republican party's level of trust is at record lows. A poll reported yesterday shows the Democratic party with a 48% level and the Republican party with a 20% level. Their efforts to take back their power are failing-- losing them trust, but worse, intentionally sabotaging the trust of the nation in the efforts of the nation's leadership.
To turn around the Republican Party's plummetting fortunes, and to help America recover, the GOP must find new ways to assert their values-- ways that do not attempt to undermine the nation's efforts to turn the economic crisis around.
Covey told me that the way he counsels the organizations he consults for is to first start from the inside out-- self trust, then relationship trust, then organizational trust. And he agreed it's a totally bottom-up sequence.
