The much discussed issue of “experience” as it applies to our current presidential candidates is one that intrigues me.
We want to take comfort in leaders with experience… wise elders if you will – who make decisions that though perhaps personally difficult for them, are in the end made for the good of the majority of folks – because that’s what leadership in a democracy is asked to do.
I know the good of the majority is a mostly painful burden. But like it or not, imperfect democracy came into existence as the best sustainable defense against the abuses brought on that majority by centuries of kings and dictators and tyranny.
At the same time, as Bush’s continued survival in the big chair and Huckabee’s evangelical hogcalls illustrate, with high-sounding catch phrases and chocolate icing, authoritarianism can be made almost appealing.
After 8 years of GWB, America has been plundered – both financially and morally. Resources that could have gone towards rebuilding our infrastructure or New Orleans or education or keeping poor kids healthy or actually securing us against terror attacks has been poured into the leaky bucket of Iraq and into the lead-lined pockets of big corporate contractors. And as to good will and respect among nations? Fuggedaboudit – And for what reasons? What were those again? “Freedom?” “Liberty?” “Democracy?”
John McCain’s not a bad guy, I suppose .. Compared to the rest of the Republican field he looks like Abe Lincoln hosting Saturday Night Live… but having him take over the country is a little too much like asking Bart Starr to come out of retirement to take over the Packers.
We have a deeper problem here – and it goes by a lot of names; apathy, mistrust, but mostly it’s just plain fear – stoked by those (including sponsor-driven media) who know that fear is a requirement of control and as such, also a natural suppressant of all things good for the soul of a people, i.e. love, altruism, compassion, etc.
Hillary has the experience. She also has more money from defense contractors than any other candidate. But considering the alternatives… she’s all-right – though the anti-Clinton artillery of 1998 is all ready to go again – and that won’t be much fun to watch in re-runs. If there weren’t a more interesting options, I’d be fine with HER excellency. But I think there is a more interesting option.
Generational change, attitudinal change… throw the boomer rascals out (Oops! – there goes me!) – and bring in some new post-boomer rascals; sounds good to me.
I don’t think that Hillary – as forceful as she is, has the same ability to awaken the spirit of people as Obama does.
I ACTUALLY believe that HE believes he can serve as a leader who makes decisions that are good for the majority of folks.
Maybe I’ll be disappointed. Wouldn’t be the tenth time. We’ll have to wait and see.
I like what Robert DeNiro said before Super Tuesday.. “It’s clear Barack Obama does not have the experience to let the special interests run the government. That’s the kind of inexperience I can get used to.”
I like even more what the father of pundits, H.L Mencken said in 1920 – long before television!
“The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily and adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.
The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
The challenge of the election and the moment, as I see it, is to awaken the inner soul of the American people, and for that task, I think Obama’s our brightest hope – just because we don’t know where his lack of experience will lead him.
