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by ROM REDDY
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There is a simple truth I learned building businesses that applies directly to what is happening in South Carolina today. Leadership matters and lack of leadership has far reaching consequences. Some of these consequences are not readily visible as the organization scrambles to fix the leadership problem with policies, rules, poor economic decisions that are covered up and no strategic direction. Strategies don’t drive progress like they should. Tactics do with a directionless entity.
When everyone is responsible, no one is responsible.
In any successful organization with good leadership, someone is in charge. Someone owns the outcomes, good or bad. Without that clarity, nothing gets done. Decisions get delayed. Accountability disappears. And failure becomes the norm.
That is exactly where South Carolina finds itself even though we are a beautiful state with enormous potential and by any measure should be the preferred choice over Florida or Tennessee or Texas.
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Everything is failing because no one is truly in charge of anything. No one takes responsibility. Everyone passes the buck. And even when someone wants to step up and lead, the system itself does not allow it. The structure of our government is designed for the status quo and zero ownership. When you do nothing, you do not upset anyone and you get re-elected. Citizens suffer, but you benefit.
Then there are those who truly want to act, but cannot because the system is built for inaction to protect the status quo. Take education as an example.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing to have a Superintendent of Education who actually runs education in this state? Someone we could hold accountable for results along with the Governor . Someone we could praise when things improve and replace when they do not. That is how leadership is supposed to work.
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Ellen Weaver is a perfect example of how this systemic problem holds us back as a state. Weaver wants responsibility. She wants to lead. She has a heart for children and reform. She wants to fix a broken system and she knows how to do it – but the system will not let her. She has no real authority to make meaningful change. Her power is fractured and diluted across a Board of Education, an Education Oversight Committee, eighty-one separate school districts, and a Legislature that must approve nearly any significant reform. And that Legislature cannot even manage its own responsibilities effectively.
The Governor is supposed to provide leadership and set direction, but that is clearly not happening. Power has been so scattered and decentralized that education has become a jobs program for bureaucrats rather than a system designed to educate children. The one person who wants to fix it cannot. And the people who could change the structure refuse to.
This problem extends far beyond education.
Over time, the Legislature has accumulated enormous power. Power begets more power. No one wants to give it up. But 170 legislators cannot run a state. It is impossible. So instead of governing, they delegate authority to massive bureaucratic agencies. Those agencies then create regulations with the force of law. Then they create more regulations. And more. And more. Until you wake up one morning and realize that God is no longer your Shepherd like our founders intended but Government is our shepherd like our founders feared.
At that point, no one is accountable. Agencies blame the Legislature. The Legislature blames the agencies. Boards blame committees. Committees blame districts. Governors issue statements and cut ribbons. Nothing changes. Corruption thrives in this environment because power is hidden, responsibility is diffused, and failure has no consequences.
Meanwhile, taxpayers pay more and get less.
That is why South Carolina sits near the bottom of nearly every measurable category that matters. Education outcomes. Infrastructure. Median family income. Economic deals that make no sense. Government efficiency. We are stuck because the system is designed to prevent accountability and preserve power for a select few.
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RELATED | HENRY McMASTER’S ‘LOST DECADE’
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HOW DO WE FIX IT?
It has to start with strong leadership. Just look at what Ron DeSantis has done for Florida or Glenn Youngkin for Virginia. It will require restructuring large portions of state government. It will require taking power and money away from legislators and returning it to the citizen. It will require shrinking the agency state. It will require confronting politicians who personally benefit from a system that is confusing, unaccountable, and permanently broken.
Chaos is not accidental. For some, it is profitable. It will require angering elected officials who protect bureaucratic jobs and opaque systems because those systems serve their interests rather than the public. And it will require disrupting a structure that has been comfortable failing the citizen for a very long time with no consequence.
It will require real, bold leadership with vision. Not performative leadership. Not consensus leadership. Not leadership that avoids conflict. We need a leader willing to take responsibility, make hard decisions, and accept the consequences. A leader strong enough to anger entrenched interests without flinching. A leader who understands that reform is impossible without upsetting the people who benefit from the status quo. A leader who does not really care about anything or anyone other than the voiceless citizen.
Until we fix the structure, nothing will improve. Until we restore accountability, no reform will last. And until someone is clearly in charge, South Carolina will continue to drift as no one is in charge.
When everyone is responsible, no one is responsible.
And until we change that, this state will remain one with great potential and no outcomes for the citizen.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Rom Reddy is a businessman from Isle of Palms, S.C., and the founder of the DOGE SC movement.
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15 comments
This is the chucklehead who thinks AI can do a good job in government.
Can we disagree respectfully instead of the name calling? Yes, I do believe AI can be transformative in reforming government as proven by the fact that we have been able to use AI to identify illegal regulations not tied to the underlying law in about one hundredth of the time and our AI forensics tool will identify where your tax money is being spent in ways that is impossible to do with traditional audits and has never been done. If you would like to learn more contact us. If u have better ideas contact us. If u want to stay on the outside and criticize , atleast be respectful.
Rom is either paying Will a ton of money or has incriminating photos of Will and Nikki. Why else would FITSNews turn into the Rom Reddy show? Clearly it’s not because Rom has any real legitimate solutions, because nothing he proposes is going to fly.
If you follow us, we are all about ideas and improving this state. Maybe a novel idea. If you followed the casino debate, Will and I were on the opposite sides. I believe Will and FITS look for great ideas wherever they find it. Maybe you can try that and you will find you don’t have to buy him or have photos. Come on guys. Why the personal attacks. Attack with alternate ideas.
You guys are making Rom’s point. The truth hurts when it is aimed at you.
Is this Mr, Reddy’s (back door???) entry into the race for Guv?
If you follow us, we are all about ideas and improving this state. Maybe a novel idea. If you followed the casino debate, Will and I were on the opposite sides. I believe Will and FITS look for great ideas wherever they find it. Maybe you can try that and you will find you don’t have to buy him or have photos. Come on guys. Why the personal attacks. Attack with alternate ideas.
If I had the interest , I would not need a back door as our movement is 98 percent self funded. Allows us to call our own shots, don’t u think??
Mr. Reddy, look at the experience of Vivek Rameswami in South Carolina, and before him the experience of Michael Blomberg, and before both the experience of Ross Perot, and before all three, the experience of John Connally,
You say you have no gubernatorial ambitions, and I absolutely believe you.
But you should not give any of your money to any one else in South Carolina. They will take it smiling in your face and mock you behind your back.
They simply are too arrogant and ignorant to believe any one not born in South Carolina can show them a better way.
It is not necessarily ethnic hostility, although that is undeniably there. Nikki Haley was accepted because she was born here but Pamela Evette is being attacked for having been born in Ohio and she even had to apologize for it.
People so besotted with the idea of some magical superiority of a South Carolina birth and will use it as a shield against a new better idea and a sword to stab any intellectually superior person.
Want to give back?
Please look at the havoc AI is wreaking in the practice of Medicine.
I am a physician and was shocked on reading on my visit summaries that certain parts of my body which the provider did not touch or look at were normal.
The truth is: AI automatically populates all the areas of examination which used to be mandatory for examination but which physicians simply have no time to examine in each patient.
This is DISASTROUS because future providers delude themselves into relying on because they simply do not know what was examined and what was not examined.
And that perilous situation is not just in South Carolina but nationwide.
One of your talents, wealth, and altruism should focus his philanthropy towards changing that standard of care to simply populate the rest of the physical exam with “not examined during this visit.”
That makes a lot of difference in the future care and diagnosis of a patient. And it will save a whole lot of lives more than changing the election of judges to appointment by the governor.
I also need to talk to you about a City of Columbia ordinance that criminalizes parking one’s own car in one’s own front yard. It has no environmental or esthetic purpose and, of course, is selectively enforced against the politically disfavored.
As always, I say, don’t just take my word, take the record. And God bless.
While your conceptual goals of how education should /could be run are very desirable, and I agree with you when you say “she has no real authority to make meaningful change” you are wrong when you say the “system” is the reason for the obstacle [although yes, the “system” does largely suck.] The real reason she has no authority is because of the concept of Home Rule, which was ensconced into our constitution at Article VIII when it was extensively revised in 1972, and a comprehensive statute was immediately thereafter enacted to further codify Home Rule. Until that changes, there will not be any major state-level reforms in education that will result in a more consolidated system that will grant SecEd the real power to effectuate major change. Home Rule is based on the concept that the governmental power over individuals’ lives and property should be as close to where they live as much as possible, and thus (at least in concept) more accountable. It’s basically a form of the federal 10th amendment, and concededly, a double-edged sword. Overall, I think it is better, despite some of its drawbacks – like in education.
Very respectfully, home rule is unconstitutional although placed in the South Carolina 1972 constitution. The federal constitution is the supreme law of the land and trumps all state laws and constitutions.
The federal constitution recognizes only two sovereigns: the federal government and the state government.
And repeatedly, the U.S. Supreme Court held that municipalities, counties, and multi-county districts are NOT sovereigns.
That means they should not be allowed to legislate or have their own police force or incarceration facilities or anything which requires sovereign powers.
I know that this a revolutionary interpretation; but think about it. It is the United STATES of America; NOT the United Counties of America or the United Cities of America. A sovereign CANNOT under the federal Constitution divide herself into smaller “sovereignlets” unless it subdivides itself into smaller states and that requires the consent of BOTH the state legislature and the FEDERAL Congress.
And contrary to the rosy idea of home rule is meant for more direct, and hence better, democracy, it was really meant to create many bureaucracies at a time when a new wave of post-world-war prosperity and industrial advancement made less human work necessary for production and left surplus of treasure for local bureaucracies.
And in practice, local elections average 10% turnout; and so do nothing for democracy.
What would counties and municipalities do then? There is no federal constitutional prohibition against their corporate entities. They can build and own roads, stadiums, hospitals, universities, anything a private corporation can do except the political subdivision is the presumptive owner of the the common land.
It just cannot legislate, criminalize or punish human conduct.
Little can make South Carolina government more efficient (and more effective, too) than the end of all that home rule nonsense.
If I had the interest , I would not need a back door as our movement is 98 percent self funded. Allows us to call our own shots, don’t u think??
Aaahhh – so is this a “reveal” of sorts, Guest Visitor?
“Tax payers” do not, in the end, want their taxes reduced or used wisely BECAUSE their very jobs come from the unwise use of those taxes.
In Columbia, half the jobs are government jobs; and in practically NONE of them is an employee accountable if the ultimate good is not achieved.
Take Fort Jackson, for example. Some are responsible that the trainees are fed on time with uncontaminated meals. Others are responsible for ensuring that the trainees undergo their prescribed drills and pass them honestly. But who is responsible if that complex machinery of well-fed, well-drilled trainees does NOT produce the soldiers able to protect the country at home and abroad against the new threats of unconventional warfare? The solution is not a magical leader but a change in the mentality of “the citizens.”
E in DOGE should stand for effectiveness, not efficiency.
Take the VA hospitals and VA Administration for another example. A huge complex machinery with many people responsible for each of the machinery’s smaller parts. Some ensure that sick veterans get admitted or referred when needed. Others ensure that applicants receive their compensation for Agent Orange or Iraq burn pits exposure. But who is responsible for ensuring the system does not produce an excessive number of drug-addicted homeless veterans who often self-harm or turn into crime?
In many cases, democracy itself is not the answer but the problem. It is the problem because it promotes the idea that everything will be wonderful if only the right magical leader is found and elected. Or if only the magical wonderful judge is found and elected or appointed by whatever means you think is the magical way to find those magical judges.
The answer is science.
Natural sciences, behavioral sciences, digital sciences, all kinds of sciences which apply the correct scientific method: testing, measuring the results correctly, and discarding that which does not work.
No business would succeed, and Rom Reddy’s business(es) would have failed, no matter how good the leadership structure is, if the ULTIMATE PRODUCT of the business were not a scientifically necessary and effective one.
South Carolina’s and to a lesser extent the U.S.’s government are now caught in a cycle of their own making: our citizens are too good for jobs that produce/make things but are excellent for jobs that say/write things. Let the rest of the world produce/make things for us while we occupy and pay ourselves by saying things to (and often against) each other.
We will pay the rest of the world for producing/making things for us will borrowed money (hence the deficit) or by simply confiscating what they produce (hence the need for military power).
But both endless deficits and military power have their limitations BECAUSE THE WORLD IS ROUND. It was always possible to do it to the next country until the world runs out of countries.
The answer is not a magical leader but a change in the mentality of the citizens: we do not need/deserve what we cannot or would not produce/make/improve for ourselves.
Re-industrialization and de-consumerism are what will make America happy and healthy. When you are happy and healthy, who cares if you are great or if your leader is magical?
Hmmm? So the City of Chucktown is accessing Rom’s emails?