This Just In – nothing good comes from a six-hour meeting.
We’ve all been in meetings that went too long. The boss can’t shut up about some screwup from last week or how he saved everyone’s bacon with a deal he made on the golf course. Get me out of here!
I’ve been in all-day meetings and multi-day meetings that were extremely productive – strategic planning stuff where you get away from the office, everyone is dressed casually and you work in teams to tackle the big picture and transform your organization. Yeah. Great stuff.
At the end of it, everyone is tired, but encouraged, engaged and jazzed about how all the changes are going to make their work more effective and efficient, more meaningful and will serve the customer better.
Yeah, buddy!
When you do those long meetings, they’re broken into segment of not more than a couple of hours. You take a walk around the building or a quick yoga lesson for everyone that’s both fun and team-building. If the boss has no yoga game, all the better. Humility is great in a leader who’s trying to challenge old paradigms and drive change.
Watching the January 6th Committee hearing this week, we heard the harrowing tale of the December 18, 2020 meeting that started in the Oval office at around 6 p.m. and ended after midnight.
No yoga. No stretching (except the truth, perhaps). No refreshing walks around the grounds (well, it was December, after all). None of those things. There was screaming and cursing and threats.
Former President Whinypants was talking to the spontaneously appearing Retired Lt. General Mike Flynn, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell (who I’m sorry to say was born in Durham and graduated from UNC with a Bachelor’s degree and a law degree). White House staff scrambled to summon White House Counsel Pat Cippiloni and his staff to interrupt the meeting.
Everyone around the president was working on persuading him to accept that he had LOST the election. All legal challenges were over on December 14. Only the Certification on January 6th remained.
Trump was hearing from Rudy and Sidney about all the scenarios that would create enough chaos to help him try to hold power. All of these ideas were ridiculous and forcefully discredited by Cippiloni, but President Whinypants insisted that they keep talking about using the U.S. military to take possession of voting machines and various other ideas – all illegal.
Why was he listening to this, asked Cippiloni. The answer: “Because they’re giving me solutions and you’re not,” said the president.
They argued. Whinypants was pursuing every possible angle of gaslighting, pressuring, flattering, threatening and, in the end, resorting to violence to force his will on the American people. After the meeting, at 1:42 a.m.) came the tweet heard round the world. Trump summoned his followers to DC for a “Stop the Steal” rally, promising it “will be wild.”
America was (and the GOP still is) in a toxic relationship with an abusive boyfriend. His followers think it’s love and that his bombastic, forceful persona is his way of showing “strength” and “leadership.”
It is neither of those. He’s bad at persuading people to his point of view and doesn’t accept that there is any other point of view but his. If you don’t agree with him, you’re dismissed with personal insults and claims that you’re deranged and a loser. Perhaps you should go to jail.
The wheels are coming off the Trump train. This is going to continue to be a painful process to watch and we have to be alert for local manifestations of the underlying hatred and white supremacy movement that gave January 6th the muscle to do by force what Trump could not achieve with persuasion, lying, cheating, stealing and force of will. It is essential that we keep our eye on the ball when it comes to the voting process and the integrity of our elections.
(featured image: Sean Thew/Pool via AP, File)
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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