people who need people
In my last post I inadvertently repeated something Freddie had already said, and I may be repeating someone else here, but . . . Is it just an accident that all four of the prez/veep candidates we will be hearing from and about endlessly over the next two months have really unusual and interesting life stories — more so than any prez/veep candidates in recent (or maybe even distant) memory? And that three of the four (I except Biden, perhaps unfairly) seem to be really interesting people?
You could make the argument that this is the first election fully to bear the marks of a reality TV world, of Oprah and Survivor and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. And also the Olympics, at least as presented by NBC. We’re perhaps more accustomed than we ever have been to hearing Fascinating and Dramatic Life Stories, stories filled with Conflict and Tension and Obstacles Overcome, preferably in exotic settings — like, you know, Hawaii, or Alaska, or Vietnam, or Scranton. Biden has the bankrupted father, the upbringing in poverty, the stutter, the horrific accident that killed his wife and daughter; McCain has the . . . well, you know all about that; Obama has the — well, you totally know all about that; and now here comes Sarah Palin, just your typical snowmobile-racing, moose-hunting, basketball-playing, beauty-contest-entering-and-almost-winning member of the NRA and Feminists for Life with five kids, one of whom has Down’s syndrome. Other forms of reality TV will never catch up. Looks like the political is the personal — maybe from here on out.
That would be a rash and probably frivolous argument, and I’m not going to make it, but you could. If you wanted to.
Both Kerry and Edwards had fairly interesting life stories. Kerry ran quite a bit on his Harley driving, Vietnam veteran against the war, survived prostate cancer persona.
Edwards is/was famously the “son of a mill worker”.
I imagine we can find an argument for Andrew Jackson as a life story candidate somewhere around here.
— talboito · Aug 30, 12:54 AM · #
I think the stories of Kerry and Edwards were interesting primarily to Kerry and Edwards. Edwards kept on a-pipin’ the son-of-a-mill-worker tune, but I never saw anyone dance to it.
— Alan Jacobs · Aug 30, 12:58 AM · #
Good point.
Lots of candidates before have had interesting life stories — Bob Dole, for example, spent most of the half decade after WWII in hospitals, but he didn’t talk about it as much as McCain talks about being a POW. George McGovern had a hellacious war record in the Army Air Corp, but I don’t recall ever hearing about it until recently. The WWII generation was famously close-mouthed compared to our Oprah Age standards.
— Steve Sailer · Aug 30, 02:20 AM · #
One might argue this is a natural consequence of the movement towards a “unitary executive”—if a single man will have all the powers of government with little transparency and oversight, that man’s life story becomes really important.
— Consumatopia · Aug 30, 02:21 AM · #
I actually think it’s a good thing that the political is the personal. I’ve often believed character is more important than “issues” in choosing leaders, because unexpected events and the difficulties of government often mean a candidate’s platform goes unapplied, even if the candidate is honest and wants to carry it through. Given that politics is the art of the impossible and unexpected, it’s much better to bet on somebody’s character than his platform.
One of the best ways to judge a candidate’s character is to learn from his life story. I think it’s a really good thing that all these candidates have these interesting life stories. It means they’re unusual people with unusual perspectives, and that in my view makes them much more qualified for government than the minutiae of a healthcare platform that has no chance of emerging as such from Congress.
— PEG · Aug 30, 08:19 AM · #
One of the best ways to judge a candidate’s character is to learn from his life story.
This seems plausible, but I have a suspicion this is one of those areas in which humans will drastically overestimate their capabilities. Especially when it comes to “unusual people with unusual perspectives”—“unusual” should probably be read as “unknowable/unpredictable”.
Since they’ve lived lives difficult for the rest of us to imagine, they just end up becoming ink blots that say more about the voters judging them than the candidates themselves.
— Consumatopia · Aug 30, 12:25 PM · #
Can’t we have a system where these four become our four consuls who must find a way to govern together, an executive branch complete with its own set of checks and balances? Can you imagine the four of them in the Oval office everyday, trying to hash stuff out?
— Freddie · Aug 30, 06:43 PM · #
Just clicked over from Andrew Sullivan—
Another way to look at it might be changing notions about private vs. public (in which reality tv certainly plays a role). People jibjab into the phones on the train or bus about incredibly personal details, knowing that those around them can hear them. Entire blogs are devoted to the minutiae of daily life. We’ve become used to seeing people brush their teeth, get up in the morning, go to bed, talk, work, have sex, and everything else on TV.
While reality shows may well have influenced our tastes in narratives (although if you ask me, they’ve got nothing on soaps), I think some of it has to do with a willingness to come right out and tell everyone everything about oneself, without feeling it unseemly or embarrassing.
— miwome · Aug 31, 03:44 AM · #
I think Joe Biden has an interesting story, losing his wife and daughter as a young man, being sworn in to office in his son’s hospital room, eventually re-marrying—his devotion to his elderly mother.
— Julana · Sep 1, 06:31 PM · #