The Trap of Hero Worship in Presidential Politics.

[McCamy Taylor]

I have seen disillusionment first hand. From JFK through Jimmy Carter all the way to Barack Obama, I have seen Democrats turn their presidents into Idols and then watched them despair as they realize that their "Idols" have feet of flesh and blood---they are human after all, with human weaknesses, human failings.

When I see words like "champion" applied to a presidential candidate, when I hear folks express the firm conviction that a single man or woman can change the entire system, I feel a little wistful, a little sad, because all of us are like this to start with. All of us imagine that our president will be the perfect father (or mother) who will make it all ok. We all want to believe. We all long to relinquish our duty to be eternally vigilant, to let some all-wise father (or mother) in the sky make all the hard choices. And, Judeo-Christian-Muslim or not, we all hope for the cleansing fires of Armageddon which will purge the earth and return us to paradise. The whole American immigrant scene is about casting off the old and embracing the new----

Maybe it is a necessary Rite of the Springtime of Youth. I once worshiped at the feet of George McGovern. I once nursed the hope that he could win and that our country would be restored, the war in Vietnam stopped, equality under the law become a reality rather than just lip service. I still have my McGovern buttons on the wall. I still remember him fondly as the president who might have been---

And then, I think about those who were not crushed by dirty tricks, those who managed to get elected, and how the office of the POTUS changed the men rather than vice versa, and I know that no single woman (or man) will ever be able to use the office of the President to enact the kind of change this country needs. The system does not allow for it. The president can declare war. Period. Everything else---the executive decrees, the cabinet appointments, the judicial appointments are all subject to the whim of Congress and the Courts and the corporate news media and Main Street and Wall Street.

If you put all your eggs in the presidential basket, you will be disappointed. Real change will only come when every one of us spends every waking moment working for it. In all aspects of our life. How we raise our children. How we shop. How we work----

Here's something to consider. Al Gore won in 2000. Do you think you would like and respect Al Gore even a fraction as much as you do now, if he had been sworn in as president?

The Oval Office is no place for heroes. The Oval Office is for work horses, people who slog through their days, getting the job done with little to no thanks once it is all over. People like Barack Obama. Barack Obama, who, not so long ago, was the mythic hero of the Democratic Party, the embodiment of Change. Had John McCain stolen the 2008 presidency the way that Bush stole it in 2000 and 2004, what would Barack Obama be to you, now? Would he be the perfect president who never got his chance? Would all the glamor of 2008 have survived intact? Would you love him, worship him still? Somewhere, deep in your heart, don't you regret that the myth, the dream had to wake up and face reality and become just a man with a job?

Wanted: a president of the united states. Must be able to work with others. Must be able to compromise. Must be able to plan ahead and see the big picture. Must be willing to accept reality and do what can be done, not waste his (or her) energy trying to accomplish the impossible. Must be thick of skin, because no one gets out of the White House with her (or his) popularity intact. Must be ever vigilant, because those who pretend to support you are always ready to stab you in the back. Must be a lot like Barack Obama---the president, not the candidate.

There is one thing to be said for being a political realist rather than an idealist. I have been pleasantly surprised by the Obama presidency. He has done much better than I imagined he would. Behind all the hype and hero worship, there was someone who was truly capable.

If you have a candidate to sell me, don't tell me that he is the champion or the hero or the savior of his nation. Tell me how hard he works. Tell me that he will keep smiling when the courts and Congress make it impossible for him to do all the things he planned to do. Tell me that he will be ever vigilant. Tell me how he can compromise and make deals. Like FDR. Like LBJ. Like Bill Clinton. Like Barack Obama. If you have another Jimmy Carter or Al Gore, save him. He will be better for his country as a private citizen than as president---

And here is a secret, something that I do not (usually) talk about, because I know that she is our best hope. She outscores all the GOP candidates by double digits. And yet, a part of me would love to see Hillary Clinton spurn the office of the president. I would much rather see her go on to become all that she can be as the universal champion of women and children and the disenfranchised and the oppressed. Hell, if the Dems come up with a candidate who can pull her kind of poll numbers, I would encourage her to drop out. Because, like Al Gore and Jimmy Carter, I suspect that she might be wasted in the office of the POTUS. I think Bill Clinton may have been right when he said that Gore and Hillary were the two most passionate idealistic people he had ever known, meaning that both of them are too good for the office of the president----

Scary thought. But then, hero worship has no place in presidential politics.

[RobertEarl]

1. Champion is now a bad word?

Who knew?

Bernie is a champion progressive who shows hope for the country if he becomes the President.

He is not an idol, or a hero; no one worships him.

The Bernie campaign is a people campaign. Not a money campaign. If Bernie wins it will not be because he outspent anyone, it will be because he is a championship level leader that will win the election because of the millions of people who believe in what HE says, not how much money he can raise.

I can't help but feel sorry for folks who think the system can't be changed. Because it can; we have just never had a champion of the people before now.

[AverageGuy]

12. Bernie does not want to be POTUS

He wants to be the spokesperson for a movement to recapture the American Dream. He has said since the beginning of his campaign, he can not do it alone, but together with the american people "nothing is impossible." Now I support Hillary, but as soon as Bernie beats all the likely Republicans candidates head to head in the polls, I will support him. I believe I am not the only one who holds this view. My Head belongs to Hillary, but my Heart belongs to Bernie. BTW, I believe the Republican candidate will be Mitt, who will be the compromise candidate of a deadlocked convention.

[ibegurpard]

13. how about you stick to speaking to your own motives?

I'm fairly certain Bernie Sanders is capable of telling us what he wants and believes.

[AverageGuy]

16. Listen to him

He always says this is not about him but is about us. In order to be the spokesperson of a successful movement, he must become POTUS, and then the real work starts. We shall overcome.

[Ron Green]

2. I read through your post a couple of times, and nowhere did I find

the one criterion by which I'm supporting my candidate:

He tells the truth.

Without someone at the top who tells the truth, we've got no chance to turn this thing around. It's not a sure thing, but there's a chance if we have the truth.

With the same old politics, the same old 20th-Century games, we don't have a chance.

[bigtree]

28. ha, truth

...as you see it?

What an awful standard to rely on, especially if you're relying on the politician's version of the truth, rather than expecting him to adhere to your own interpretation. Voters hail from disparate regions of the nation with a myriad of interests, concerns, and beliefs. We bring those individual ideals to our political system, load them up in our Democratic coalition as a vehicle to propel and elevate them in the national debate to the level where they can be reconciled in our legislature into action or law. With all of the different interpretations of what's in the national interest, it takes steadfastness to those ideals to keep them reasonably intact through all of the debate and deliberations of government.

I think a better standard is conviction, along with the fortitude to hold fast to those principles you support.

[Ron Green]

40. The truth is that it's a bought system.

That's the one thing that won't be uttered by those who're paid for, no matter what their conviction and fortitude.

[murielm99]

3. Expect every word you just said to go over the heads of

the Bernie supporters. They will reply with anger at your perceived criticism of their candidate.

Nevertheless, thank you for that well-reasoned post about the realities of Presidential politics.

If any of the angry Bernie supporters give this some thought, they will realize that a lot of leadership positions carry the same risks. Good leaders usually have to compromise and work with others. They always have to revise their original expectations to meet changing realities. They get to the top after they have been tested.

Hillary has been tested her entire adult life. She is indeed our best hope, not just for our party by for our country.

[ibegurpard]

4. Well that sounded an awful lot like hero worship to me

Just sayin'

[murielm99]

5. And your post sounds an awful lot like

projection to me.

Go back again and read what I said about leadership. I was agreeing with the OP, by and large.

Just sayin'

[ibegurpard]

6. I disagree with you

That Hillary is the leader you think she is.

[murielm99]

7. Why didn't you say so in the first place

instead of being snarky?

[ibegurpard]

10. Because I'm tired of people

Saying shit like "hero worship doesn't belong in politics" and then turning right around and engaging in the same behavior they accuse those with whom they disagree of doing..and being unable to recognize it in themselves. The OP was the same thing...a condemnation of "hero worship" and then a fuzzy glowing recommendation of HRC.

[madokie]

9. Sounded more like Hillary worshiping to me

just saying

[murielm99]

17. LOL.

There is an echo in here.

[99Forever]

34. Bwahahahahaha.

Hey Pot...

... have you met Kettle?

[awoke_in_2003]

47. "Expect every word you just said to go over the heads of the Bernie supporters"

Yeah, because we're all stupid and stuff.

[Fumesucker]

8. "Must be able to plan ahead and see the big picture."

You mean like realizing in 2002 that voting for the IWR would be a vast and putrid albatross in the 2008 election?

That sort of seeing the big picture?

[AZ Progressive]

11. This is why I like to see human psychology from a third person perspective...

You see just how anyone is subjected to the flaws, including the delusions, of how the mind works. It helps you in being able to realize when you yourself are being taken away by flaws of human psychology.

I don't totally agree with you about Obama (we can do better than a socially liberal Bill Clinton) but otherwise well written. Even Bernie has been known to be a pragmatist when he became mayor of Burlington. However, he did draw a line in the sand in terms of big business not hurting the working class.

It might take delusion to see just what is possible with Bernie, but if Bernie can't get the required momentum to truly be able to take on the establishment, we have to be prepared to accept Hillary. Even then, the establishment has become very powerful in part due to its ability to manipulate the population, who's to say that they won't be able to divide and break apart Bernie's supporters? And just in time to allow a rabid Republican to win the white house...

[AZ Progressive]

14. BTW, even our greatest presidents weren't all that perfect

Washington was a slaveowner, Theodore Roosevelt was a warmonger, believed in eugenics, and pushed for the brutal Philippines-American war, FDR of course the Japanese Internment as well as pretty much creating the military-industrial complex.

[JDPriestly]

24. Good points. And yet they were heroes because they brought us one step further toward

a healthy, democratic society and made progress real.

So they are all heroes but not perfect.

[uponit7771]

27. Obama has brought us one step forward in many areas and Berniacs hate him to the core

[nc4bo]

32. Ummm......hate you say? That's just not true. Most of us disagree passionately on certain issue.

We don't hate the man.

I certainly don't hate the man one bit.

It's the politics I hate and I'm certain I'm not alone.

[uponit7771]

39. Yeah, hate... if that aint hate I'd like to know what is. He's kept, compromised or working on 75%..

... of his campaign promises and Berniacs talk at him worse than TeaPublicans

[NRaleighLiberal]

42. wrong.

[awoke_in_2003]

49. Upthread I learned Bernie supporters are stupid

now I find we hate Obama. God, I love this place.

[Trajan]

54. I'm starting to think you are just trying to insult fellow democrats

Because they don't support your preferred candidate ...

Getting sick of it ....

[uponit7771]

61. I'm starting to think I've touched a nerve and I don't have a preferred candidate

[Trajan]

62. I think you are being dishonest

Your postings have had a clear preference, which I am quite surprised that you would deny in such a bald-faced fashion ...

Just so you know - you are not doing that candidate any favors ... It's actually quite despicable ...

Dirty, nasty, ugly ... I don't think that is the preferred motto of that candidate, but that is what we are getting from you .... It's nothing to be proud of ... Any normal person would rightly be ashamed ...

[uponit7771]

63. I know you're wrong, could care less what you think about my preferences and haven't changed

... my mind one bit on the level of vitriol pointed at Obama from Berniacs.

I've stated more than I've posted that I think we have 4 kick ass candidates that can't throw a stone and each will progress America further.

NONE of the candidates can throw a stone...

NOT ONE

[Trajan]

64. I love Bernie ... I admire Obama ...

I haven't iggied anybody in a really long time, but, really, some posters are so detestable that their words should not see the light of day ...

Gone ...

[zappaman]

15. Huge rec and kick.

Really well done.
Thanks for the time and thought you put into this.

[artislife]

18. Really?

Gosh, this strikes me as a bit condescending. Only the nonHilary supporters are under the influence of a cult of personality? My criteria for voting for the presidency is someone who is anti-Wall Street, anti-Monsanto and anti-TPP. They must fight for civil, social and financial rights for the American people. That is the leadership I am looking for.

Back in 2008, I read and posted in feminists sites like Tennesse Guerilla Women and a host of others. I was excited by both a woman and an African American who could be the next president of the United States. I wanted to know all about them, so I belonged to PoC sites, too. And for all the accusations of "drinking the Kool Aid etc that was thrown from the Hilary supporters, I wondered why they were not aware of their own cult of personality.

Still aren't, I guess.

Every supporter of whomever on this site is invested at this stage of the game. Everyone who is here is a mouth frother, the normal electorate will be joining us in say, 6 to 9 months. So don't put yourself too high above the fray.

[cui bono]

19. If you're going to post something that tells me Clinton and Obama had presidencies to aspire to

then I'm going to have to disagree.

Both of them sold out the people of this country. They are what is wrong with the Dem Party leadership today. Too corporate. That's not what the people want. They certainly don't want their jobs shipped overseas, the banksters playing fast and loose with their money or SS being offered up when negotiating with the GOP.

And if anyone ever had hero worship it's Obama, you must have witnessed it since you post here. So I'm not sure what your point really is or who you are posting this for but I feel this OP has missed, although I completely agree that "hero worship has no place in presidential politics".

[Skittles]

20. I am sick of the swooning

I thought the swooning for Obama was - heck, IS - over-the-top-ridiculous - but now I see it is continuing with the latest crop of candidates

[Agschmid]

29. Yup.

[zappaman]

45. Remember this?

Made me cringe

[awoke_in_2003]

52. You must hate Obama

[zappaman]

58. Well...

[Skittles]

57. I AM SO THANKFUL EVERY DAY I WAKE UP AND OBAMA IS PRESIDENT

can you say......Tiger Beat?

[awoke_in_2003]

50. +1000

There are some on both sides who take this shit too far.

[lunamagica]

21. K&R.

What a thoughtful post.

Sadly, it will fall mostly on deaf ears. I remember the idol-worship of candidate Obama. I suspect that those who idolized him the must, are his harshest critics now.

[msongs]

22. real change comes b y controlling both houses of congress. the figurehead of the moment

doesn't matter much without that for most things

[JDPriestly]

23. So, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln,

Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt shouldn't have applied?

They are all and were all heroes. Every one of them knew when to compromise and when not to compromise.

Bernie will be no less. Nobody thinks that Bernie will work miracles.

But we do think he will speak up loud and clear in favor of protecting, maybe even increasing, benefits under Social Security, improving the situation in the workplace for parents and families, making our economy a bit fairer to all of us, putting a more rational foreign policy in place and pushing the country just a bit toward working together better, improving our infrastructure, meeting the challenges of the 21st century, balancing free trade with justice in the workplace, supporting unions and not just employer organizations, and making life a little better. Bernie will be more independent in his approach. He will compromise but only after getting the best deal possible for America's working people.

Hey. Obama has done pretty well considering the mess the world and the country were in when he took over. But he is not the strongest negotiator. He is a wonderful person and his health care reform has helped a lot of people, but his appointments in the economic sphere have, maybe with the exception of Yellen been problematic. He could have done better in that area.

Bernie's appointments in the economic area and to the SEC will make a big difference in our country if he is elected.

[passiveporcupine]

25. All of us imagine that our president will be

the perfect father (or mother) who will make it all ok.

Are you serious? I am looking for a wise and compassionate leader, not a parent, thank you.

And I don't expect miracles. One person cannot change this country by themselves.

But I am tired of the status quo that we have been dealing with for too long, who is ruled by money.

I am sorry that you are so blinded by your candidate that you cannot/will notsee her faults. You who are trying to tell everyone else they are the idealists. Sounds to me like you've pretty much latched onto your hero.

[uponit7771]

26. +1, Obama has done well with 76% of promises kept, compromised or in the works and that's

... from politifact which holds him responsible for promises stopped by republicans!!!

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

30. Yuck.

I'm sorry, but that is not the President I want. The President you want is the kind of President who got us where we are now, signing bad legislation along with the good in the name of 'getting things done'. The President I want is the man or woman who knows when it's time to be 'King Log' as well as when it's better to be 'King Stork'. Who will work AGAINST bad legislation, who will not pretend to be happy when other people do stupid things or block the good ones, thus giving other people the impression that he doesn't feel those are grave mistakes, and making even more bad things possible.

I want a President who always leads the people, pointing to the good at every turn, pointing out evil where it is, even if he or she can't 'wave a wand' and make it go away. Even merely highlighting it constantly helps change the views of people across the populace, making it more likely that such evils will be addressed in future. A President who inspires US to be better people, because change doesn't come just from one man or woman 'slogging away', but from their ability to make the rest of us work actively for change. To inspire us to create change, and to be there to sign off when that change arrives on the Oval Office desk.

[djean111]

31. You seem to have mom and dad issues. You mention them so much. Especially mom.

You should, perhaps, stop projecting those issues onto everybody else.
I do not "hero worship" any politician. I am as cynical as a person could be.
I also would never vote for someone just because they are a woman, or because they or their supporters think they "earned it". Or consider them some sort of champion for women and children, while they championed bombing them.

Everyone who votes in the primaries will make their own choice. What I am seeing, more and more these days, is pique because other people will not follow directions, orders, or instructions. The authoritarian thing makes me wonder if people who have parent issues are trying to compensate.

I always saw DU as a place where people could express their own opinions, and communicate with others who share the same opinions. Not as a place where people are constantly excoriated to change their opinion or else, for example, "say hello to President Cruz". That threat is bandied about quite a bit. Kind of interesting this different take - condemning hero-worship while hero-worshiping Hillary, and attempting to oddly psychoanalyze all those who just do not fall into line when instructed to. Entertaining, too, because this sort of thing won't change a single mind, IMO.

[1StrongBlackMan]

33. Posted to for later. n/t

[99Forever]

35. The Irony runs deep in this one.

[raouldukelives]

36. Thanks for the reminder that we are what we do everyday.

There are those that represent the values of Wall St and invest in multinational corporations who back politicians who will ignore the past evils they've done and promote the new evils they want to do.

And there are those who believe every citizen, no matter how rich or poor, no matter how black or white, deserve equal representation under the law and don't increase the wealth and reach of those denying it to them.

The one good thing about Citizens United is that now that corporations are people, it makes it far easier to judge someone by the company they keep.

With friends like those, who needs enemas?

[rock]

37. Nearly every reply post supports your claim

Excellent assessment!

[mmonk]

38. I can't compromise with today's right on economics.

I'd rather have someone who will fight damaging ideas like a Truman in today's climate.

[Autumn]

41. If only Hillary had been able to look ahead on the day she voted for the IWR. Is that what you mean

by a President being able to plan ahead and see the big picture? Because Bernie looked ahead and saw the big picture. Now as to your objection on The Trap of Hero Worship in Presidential Politics and hero worship having no place in presidential politics?
Your fucking kidding me right? You were laughing when you typed that?


I do enjoy well done satire.

I will admit I do exaggerate my breathlessness for Bernie, it gives some people something to do.

[Metric System]

46. Bernie was in a very different position as a representative of Vermont.

[winter is coming]

48. No, he really wasn't. The war was a stinkingly bad idea based on trumped-up

"evidence" no matter where you were from.

[Autumn]

60. How so? Millions of people KNEW Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. n/t

[NRaleighLiberal]

43. a big UN rec.

[LWolf]

44. I've never had a hero, political or otherwise.

I simply don't subscribe to the concept of heroes.

I also know that Sanders is quite pragmatic when it comes to making progress. The difference is that he sees each small step forward for what it is: one step, not the finish line.

He's been making deals all along. Here's just one of many:

Just before Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders excoriated Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s record to a cheering crowd of 10,000 at a Madison arena on Wednesday night, Walker’s staff tweeted: “Thousands of veterans suffered in VA scandal yet @BernieSanders downplayed it & attacked those who exposed it.”
The tweet, to say the least, was misleading. The Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist, now seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has long supported our veterans—even if he doesn’t support all our wars. And in 2014 he accomplished the last thing you might expect from a candidate whose campaign brand is firebrand: He negotiated a major bipartisan agreement with two conservatives to deal with the veterans health care crisis.

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

From the moment the long-gathering scandal broke into public view in April 2014, it took Congress less than four months to produce a new law—a split second by Capitol Hill standards. That it happened at all, and so fast, was a testament to the determination of Sanders and his partners to surmount the red-blue divide in American politics. It speaks volumes in particular about Sanders, who pushes for a single-payer government health system in every speech, that the law introduced a private-care option for veterans.

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

But Sanders is not an ideologue in the mold of a Michele Bachmann or a Ron Paul, both of whom made far more headlines than laws during their years in the House. He is not averse to compromise or incremental progress, and he works within the system to make that happen. In January, for instance, he and Sen. Patty Murray were the lead writers of a letter asking Obama to update overtime standards in order to make more people eligible for overtime pay. Obama announced such an update a few days ago.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/how-bernie-sanders-fought-for-our-veterans-119708.html#ixzz3fJyzhsxI

[Agnosticsherbet]

55. I do not support any candidate.

I stay independent due to my concern that confirmation bias will make it impossible to judge fairly which candidate is the best.

[Sheepshank]

56. that was very well said

Clear rational, with reality based terms and examples.

happy to KnR

[retrowire]

59. this was very well written

but it had it's own hypocritical hero worshipping bias built in.

good read though!

[Raine1967]

65. Thank you for saying this.

I don't know who you support for the office at this time, and I need not know, but what you said is all of the reasons why I currently am supporting Martin O'Malley.

I have never had hero worship for any candidate. This -- in particular — is why I am drawn to support the person I would like to see as president:

Wanted: a president of the united states. Must be able to work with others. Must be able to compromise. Must be able to plan ahead and see the big picture. Must be willing to accept reality and do what can be done, not waste his (or her) energy trying to accomplish the impossible. Must be thick of skin, because no one gets out of the White House with her (or his) popularity intact. Must be ever vigilant, because those who pretend to support you are always ready to stab you in the back. Must be a lot like Barack Obama---the president, not the candidate.

I didn't respond to you to convince you; I responded because what you said shores up all of the reasons (aside from every policy proposition I have seen) why I would like to see him as president.

Again, thank you.