Digong Duterte and Lebron James

Duterte's presidential ambition is comparable to Lebron James' campaign on being the NBA's Greatest of all Time. Both of them have the right skills, experiences, talents and capabilities to reach their respective summits. While the public's perception of their blunders, antics and character are their weaknesses. 

But the biggest hurdle for both is not themselves but their not so few fanatics who arrogantly think that their idols can do no wrong. They would even twist the obvious lapses to make it look that these are their heroes' assets. They do it to the point of pushing away people who don't feel indifferent from them in the first place. They know no tolerance nor respect. But somehow I understand their feelings of being oppressed with how the media portray their idols. But the problem is the more they open their mouths, the more they get dragged down.

I have a Lebron jersey given by a friend who knew how I liked this player very much during his younger years. For the record, I am also for a federalism and disciplinarian type of government which Duterte is advocating that I'm a vocal ChaCha supporter. But still I have a lot of things to disagree about their games and character. But I don't hate LBJ and Digong. I don't even think they are like what most people think they knew about them. I just don't see them inspiring that much good vibes which are expected from people like them. Compare them to the current considered GOATs,  Michael Jordan and the likes of Magsaysay, Quezon and other admired state leaders. 

I was once unfriended by an LBJ fan just because of disagreeing in a social media discussion about who's the better baller now between Curry and James.  And then there some Digong fans who were friends (not sure if they still see me as one) seem not to care if they hurt people by blurting expletives and insults towards people who simply aren't supporting him. And it is unique with Digong's candidacy that he and some of his supporters are vocal in pushing for obviously unlawful things like extra judicial killings, threatening freedom of religion and freedom of speech, etc.  Most of those who think these are good things are young people. Then who will tell those kids who idolize him that these things are wrong? 

And no, I aint a kobe fantard nor an undisciplined corrupt candidate supporter, both of which are the kneejerk tag to non-LBJ and non-digong supporters respectively. I dont have a presidentiable in mind yet and I'm a big Spurs fan by the way.

We all agree that leadership means action. I admire Digong and LBJ's accomplishments. They are probably one of the best in their fields. But leadership is not just about what you do but also of how you bring out the best from your people. We can't just ignore this detail because a leader can only do so much to change a lot of things and his followers are responsible for a bigger chunk. I am not saying that they are bad examples over all. But based on how a big number of their followers act towards other people in their defense, many can say that they aren't also good ones. And the challenge is for them to prove us that it is wrong. 

But for sure, some will get angry and will approach this post angrily as a "blasphemy" against their idols. Reasoning, anyone? But I hope, this isn't the case for everybody.