The battle is on for leadership authenticity among the candidates. "I am your person, and here is why!" is attacked by opponents with, "He is not, and here is what he is not telling you!"
Much of the nomination marathon, as displayed in the debates, is about candidates attacking the record of their opponents-the stupid or questionable calls that the candidate made in previous administrations. This is not bad, but rather shallow in the spectrum of possible approaches to analyzing a candidate's real qualifications. One deeper approach to analysis includes the psycho-history of the candidate: influences of youth and education and career choices.
Here is where it gets more interesting:
- Mitt and his silver spoon and his Private Equity Days. Private equity is more about shareholder value than creating jobs, don't we know?
- Rick and the Texas upbringing that makes George W, who never had a passport, look positively cosmopolitan
- Obama and his Hawaii-to-Ivy League-to-community organizer path, which the red side thinks weird and rather un-American.
In a culture built around two time pillars: progress in the future, and mindfulness of the now, the past is undervalued to be sure. We would be well served to get to know these candidates, what draws them to the future and what shadows and demons they carry over from the past. The purpose of this blog is to remind readers that knowing your past well is the best means to get where you want to go.
The past is about our presidential choices as well.
David Brooks of The New York Times writes deeply on occasion about how the psycho-history of the person in office determines the fate of that presidency and even the fate of the nation. That is more the level of thinking that is needed to make our judgments, and more the concern of this blog.
What images, myths and beliefs drive the person running for office? What shadows aspects of their personality will eventually come out to determine their and our fate: Bill Clinton's unaddressed inner demon caught up with him through Monica. And we got frivolous waste. George W. kicked the alcohol demon, but the personified shadows of his Dad, Rumsfeld and Cheney limited his originality at best, and who knows what we have suffered at the worst. We are still in his wake. And for Obama what is being wrought? And Rick and Mitt and Michele and Sarah, and others?
The reality of America is mixed with its myth of course. Which myth is the candidate appealing to? What is his or her reality and how does it mix with his or her myth of service, of destiny, of policing or serving the world? Old Abe never bought into the myth of God being on his side, and he instead "had malice toward none" and created a myth from which we continually learn.
Our fate is tied to those daring to go to the podium now to stump for our votes. We inherit their shadows. Godspeed to them all.
Image above: Some rights reserved by DonkeyHotey
