Share
To the Editor:
Governor Lamont has yet again proven he is an incompetent figure head. The most recent example of his lack of vision and leadership ability is his failure to deliver on his promise to provide 500,000 sets of COVID home test kits this week. The Governor never secured the kits. Who will be fired as a result of this failure to execute?
His abysmal approval ratings pre-Covid (less than 30%) were improved by daily press briefings where questions posing anything other than sycophantic, figurative air-kisses were non-existent from the lapdog press in Connecticut. COVID question responses are not a substitute for leadership of a State.
Lamont has failed at understanding his role as Governor. A leader would understand the details, work from a broad vision, and hold people accountable. The current debacle is a repeat of March 2020 when the Governor promised and failed to provide PPE at the onset of the pandemic. Hundreds of private citizens led by Bob Stefanowski and Pat Sasser raised money, obtained and distributed hundreds of thousands of masks to citizens for free in the absence of the State being able to execute.
Leadership by example is not a part of this Governor’s understanding of the job he thought important enough to have spent a considerable part of his family fortune to obtain. There are lots of euphemistic descriptions of this type of behavior – my favorite is empty suit.
Worse, the Governor has abrogated the concept of citizen self-rule by maintaining executive powers. Perhaps he is lazy, or perhaps he recognizes he is in over his head. A true leader would honor his oath of office and work with the citizens via the legislature. But, as a topic for another time, the Democrat-led State Assembly is unwilling to do its job.
The Governor has squandered the opportunity to position Connecticut as a business destination for expanding and re-locating businesses, even though he got a one-time uptick from people fleeing NYC. A leader would have noted that we have among the highest electrical rates in the country; highest level of personal property tax rates; and a generally anti-business stance and found ways to reduce the cost of living in Connecticut by reducing State Government expenses. Instead, he has continued the downward slide of the state, always looking for revenue via legalized marijuana; expanded gambling and gasoline taxes. How are any of those initiatives going to help those that the Governor purports to want to help??
Robert Ham
Cheshire, CT