In the early days of my fatherhood, I was once criticized by an in-law family member for my parenting style. She accused me of being an authoritarian, to which I politely corrected her by saying, no, I was authoritative. Her response was, so what's the difference? It occurred to me then than there were probably many who didn't know the difference and confused the two as the same. What is the difference?
An authoritarian person is one who favors, or enforces, strict obedience to authority (usually themselves), at the expense of personal freedoms of the subjugated. Dictators are usually authoritarians without fail. An authoritative person, on the other hand, by definition is able to be trusted as being accurate, true, and reliable. He is commanding and self-confident, likely to be respected and obeyed. That's a huge difference between the two, and one that I felt I needed to be sure my in-laws understood. My children respected me, and they obeyed me, yet they also had their personal freedoms.
My reason for sharing this personal insight is to highlight the difference between the two, for our President has recently been called an authoritarian as well as a dictator, and yet a far more accurate assessment of his personality is that he is authoritative, for he is commanding and self-confident, respected by his party, as well as many Independents and even some Democrats, and he is restoring many of the freedoms that were infringed upon by the last administration. There are things I believe you could be critical of our president, however, the biased attacks that are and have been levied against him bear no element or truth or accuracy. A suggestion would be, stop attacking every little thing and look for those areas that have common ground, then work together to make those changes come to pass. Both sides can claim victories in bi-partisan deals.
Food for Thought...
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