10/04/2012
Please
look at this 1.5 min clip from last night's debate [noted below] The
GOP added music, which I would not have done. I will look for more
clips. They may reveal more.
Obama is not used to being spoken to in that way. Presidents do live in a bubble of believers and supporters. LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Baby Bush, Obama display the same reality. As a political scientist, this phenomenon stands out to me. These men are treated as Emperors, as gods, and how dare anyone question them. It is not at all a sign of political health in our country, but of a huge gap between rulers and ruled. We are a democracy in name, an empire in reality. We the People do not know or face this truth.
These political leaders need more genuine, open discussions with their opponents. Consider how the PM of the UK must speak before Parliament regularly, and how they are booed by opponents. That is much healthier than our American elevation of Presidents as Messiahs. (UK gives the divine aura more to the Monarch, removed from politics.) To my mind, this elevation of the Leader was what last night displayed. The same unmasking occurred to Reagan in 1984 in his first debate. These Presidents are not accustomed to being cross-examined or openly assaulted in public. They need more of it. Reality breeds humility.
Friends, our elected political leaders are indeed a governing class, and largely removed from real life. Both parties. Virtually identical in this regard.
We see the truth of Lord Acton's insight: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Whether Roman or Chinese emperors, or Popes and bishops, or leaders of ideological mass movements, or American Presidents, the same disease of the arrogance of power and protection from the truth of reality shows up. And this reality of self-importance and self-worship is masked by political hoopla, smiles, handlers, media that share in the aroma of power, and so on.
Obama is not used to being spoken to in that way. Presidents do live in a bubble of believers and supporters. LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Baby Bush, Obama display the same reality. As a political scientist, this phenomenon stands out to me. These men are treated as Emperors, as gods, and how dare anyone question them. It is not at all a sign of political health in our country, but of a huge gap between rulers and ruled. We are a democracy in name, an empire in reality. We the People do not know or face this truth.
These political leaders need more genuine, open discussions with their opponents. Consider how the PM of the UK must speak before Parliament regularly, and how they are booed by opponents. That is much healthier than our American elevation of Presidents as Messiahs. (UK gives the divine aura more to the Monarch, removed from politics.) To my mind, this elevation of the Leader was what last night displayed. The same unmasking occurred to Reagan in 1984 in his first debate. These Presidents are not accustomed to being cross-examined or openly assaulted in public. They need more of it. Reality breeds humility.
Friends, our elected political leaders are indeed a governing class, and largely removed from real life. Both parties. Virtually identical in this regard.
We see the truth of Lord Acton's insight: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Whether Roman or Chinese emperors, or Popes and bishops, or leaders of ideological mass movements, or American Presidents, the same disease of the arrogance of power and protection from the truth of reality shows up. And this reality of self-importance and self-worship is masked by political hoopla, smiles, handlers, media that share in the aroma of power, and so on.
