Throughout this entire election season, I have heard, time
and time again, how many people are ready to just chuck the whole field into
the river. “There’s just no one good in the race this year.” Or “They both are
horrible, the better of who cares.” or my favorite “I don’t want to elect a
Republican or Democrat; I want to elect an American”.
Statements like these are inevitably followed by someone
usually wondering where the great people of yesteryear are today. Where is this
generations Lincoln, Washington, King, Kennedy, or Roosevelt? We quickly forget
how none of those great leaders were considered great in their own time, and
how this feeling we have about the national mood is really one of our own
making.
Greatness is never really appreciated in its own time, but
at the same time, it is usually bestowed on those who have a revisionist view
on history. In school, we are taught about the greatness of Washington, as a
war leader, while his achievements as President are usually glossed over. We forget
that even as a war leader, George Washington was at best a mediocre military
commander, who lost more battles than he won. He just happened to win the right
ones (a prime example of the phrase “Lose the battle but win the war”)
The election of Lincoln caused the country to split in two.
As a result, a bloody Civil War was fought, and would forever change the
cultural landscape of the country. The war, and the disagreements were about
more than slavery, or property, and Lincoln himself didn’t begin the war in a
crusade to abolish slavery, much to the chagrin of many staunch abolitionists.
Lincoln wanted to preserve the country, but when he realized the country needed
to fundamentally change, he gave the country the guidance it needed to make
those changes. It cost him enormous political clout and capital (which we
forget today) and ultimately cost him his own life.
I mean really ask yourself if someone in a wheelchair could be elected President in today's political climate |
Ask yourself, could a man like FDR or Lincoln be elected
today? I remember talking with friends and reading my twitter feed during the
debates and many people would obsess over Mitt Romney’s smirk, or Barack Obama’s
frown, as if those were the only determining factors. Never mind what each of
the candidates said or the substance of their positions. Their confidence, or charisma,
real or imagined, seemed to sway the mood.
This was quickly followed by the hacks in the media who
would also obsess over these minute details to the point of exhaustion and the public
would eat up every word. We know more, demand perfection, and pounce on any
flaw in the other side, and trumpet it from the mountaintops on and on, to the
point where we’ve made the public cynical about the process. We act like every success
or failure is a live or die situation that we forget that these are human
beings, dedicated to an impossible task, trying to make the lives of all of us
spectators in the stands better. We’ve made it a sport, at the expense of our
own realities.
Neither Mitt Romney, or Barack Obama will fundamentally change
the American landscape, as others before have done, and none of them alone
could have done it. Lincoln, FDR, and Washington all had success in military
campaigns to help them, as did JFK. Lyndon Johnson and Nixon, by contrast did
not, and are considered inferior today, in spite of Johnson passing the civil
rights act and Nixon opening up trade with China (both of which continue to be
major forces determining American life as we know it today)
We bought into this news cycle, we obsess over the small
details, and we pick and prod our candidates to the point where they are no
longer human, but rather competing robots looking for the slightest edge. The
reason we think no one good exists any more, is because we make more out of the
flaws, and the character based on those flaws rather than the greatness that
lies beneath.
I encourage all to vote next week, for whomever you wish.
The fact remains that history is made by those who show up, and not by those
who sit out. There are two major candidates (among others no doubt) both of
which are true Americans, and both are excellent choices for the office of
President of the United States. However, understand that no one looks like
Lincoln, JFK, FDR, or Washington when they come in the door. Only after they
are gone can we really appreciate what they were able to achieve.
JFK, Johnson and Nixon had Vietnam, mind you Kennedy started our deep involvement there, Johnson's Administration escalated and was damaged by it and Nixon ended it. Also don't forget President Eisenhower, who changed the fundamental landscape of America with the Highways but also warned us not to be dependent on the Military Industrial Complex.
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