Nathaniel

Shockey

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January 14, 2008

Before You Pick a President, Pay Attention and Think

Think about the many faces of U.S. presidents throughout our country’s history. There was Teddy Roosevelt, the rugged face; Abraham Lincoln, the wise, tired face; George Washington, the noble, courageous face; Richard Nixon, the conniving face; John F. Kennedy, the handsome, inspirational face; Harry Truman, the bold face; Andrew Jackson, the fearless face.

And then there’s everyone in recent memory.

One has to take a long look into history before attempting to judge a president. For one thing, it’s good to be sure he’s dead so you don’t have to worry about his reaction. But more to the point, even the actions of presidents who have been out of office for over half a century are still hotly debated. Should Truman have dropped the bombs? Did Franklin Delano Roosevelt wait too long to get involved in World War II? How would you have handled Vietnam?

But eventually, presidents have a way of finding a comfortable niche in middle school textbooks. It takes decades, sometimes centuries, to form a reasonable judgment about the actions of a U.S. president. There are very few week-old events that we can describe with certainty as, “a bonehead move,” or “a great idea.”

And yet, most of us are incredibly quick to judge. For instance, in the minds of many, President Bush’s place in history is already chiseled in stone – George W. Bush, the foolish, the renegade, the disaster, the simpleton. But how will history remember him? As the overzealous warmonger who haphazardly plunged us into an un-winnable war, or as the courageous president who helped curb Islamofascism?

How will history remember Bill Clinton? As the man who nearly rescued the economy, or the man who led it into a recession? As the man who lived in peace, or the man who crippled our armed forces and loosened America’s grip on terrorism? As the impeached adulterer, or the whipping boy of an angry, conservative Congress?

We all have our hunches, some of them stronger than others, but none of us can already say, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Bush or Clinton was foolish or wise.

This matters for two reasons. First, the shallow judgments of a trigger-happy citizenry are not good for a country. There is a school of thought that says the only way to be heard is to find a street corner and scream the most extreme viewpoints at the top of your lungs. If you want to make a difference, you have to picket outside the White House, screaming “Bush is a Terrorist.”

But our country needs to learn that there is a gaping difference between getting somebody’s attention and making a difference. There is no difference between the guy who got on TV for turning his house into an army barracks and the guy who pulls up his shirt behind the basketball play-by-play guy. It takes a lot more to affect a person’s opinion than merely saying, “This opinion exists (and can be summed up in a bumper sticker).” These people are annoying, and often, a bit frightening. Anyone can turn heads. But it’s hard to change a person’s direction. The attention of a million people accomplishes less than one meaningful conversation.

The second reason this matters is that our judgments, whether or not they are sound, are about to elect a future face of American history. It’s only 10 months away, and the way Americans vote today does matter.

We have to do our homework, because much is at stake. We must study the records of these seven or eight unfamiliar faces. We can’t merely trust a youthful face, a good-looking face or a glowing smile. It’s our responsibility to figure out what ideas are good ideas, who really maintains them and who gets things done.

What Americans do right now matters. We’re about to add another face to U.S. history that could either heal us or haunt us for years to come.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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