Thoughts on The American Presidency

I was helping someone find a quote about American Presidents, and in the process of searching, we found these from my own site. Thought as we ponder our latest election and the question of what the presidency means and where it might lead, I’d toss ’em out to you.

But sticking to Clinton, and to the value of the American Presidency – it is worth noting. We are too enthralled with our partisanships and our “hates”, sometimes, and we overlook the fact that – as with the papacy – the Office of the American President brings out qualities in the person called that we (and perhaps they) do not always recognize at first. It allows him to do “what needs to be done,” even if the world tells him not to do it, even if the world “hates” him for it.:

…the American Presidency is, like a papacy or a monarchy, larger than the person who occupies the office, and it is noble. The American President freed slaves when too many would not entertain the notion. The American President has carried the big stick used to overthrow tyrants and bullies both foreign and domestic. The American President has put his airmen to use to keep his vanquished enemies in Berlin from starving in a brutal winter, he has used his navy to bring aid after tsunami. The American President has dreamed great space voyages into reality, has opened closed markets, has encouraged a people to tear down walls. The American President has envisioned tens of millions of people raising purple fingertips to the sky, and made it so.

The Office of the American President was not created for pageantry, and the man (or woman) voted into it is not there to be “loved.” He is there to protect and defend his nationals and articulate the primacy of human liberty throughout the world, even if he never gets much credit for it. Kosovo loves Bill Clinton. Iraqi’s and Kurds love George W. Bush.

Nations and people who have lived under jackboot and tyranny always love the American President. And nations ruled by tyrants have always loved his foes.

— From Bill Clinton’s Other Best Legacy

President Bill Clinton signed welfare reform into law. And it has been a good thing, a better thing – perhaps – than many of us even realize. Whether Clinton will claim this legacy, however, is questionable. After all, the success of Welfare Reform has only proved – once again – that the helping hand of necessary, but structured, social aid can uplift and encourage, while the hand-out of creeping socialism can only deplete and depress our human spirit, drive and ingenuity. It is a legacy of which any good conservative would be proud.

And the Democrats, since they’ve gotten back in power, have talked like nothing but good socialists. Claiming Clinton’s legacy would spoil the whole script.

— From The Bootstrap Nation; Bill Clinton’s Best Legacy

Perhaps our society seems so out of whack because everyone is trying so desperately to stand out from the great vast ocean of unremarkable “specialness” into which they have been thrust.

It is simply true that most people live their lives unknown to all but their immediate family and friends, and they die and in a generation or two, they are completely forgotten – except, perhaps, by people like me, who like to go to cemeteries and take rubbings from headstones. This has always been true, since the dawn of time, and there is absolutely no reason to downplay the dignity and effectiveness that comes with being an average human being.

There was only one Moses, but it was the whole anonymous gang of average Jews who eventually populated the Promised Land. There was only one Martin Luther King but the whole anonymous gang of average marchers who made the trips to Mobile and to Washington DC. There was only one Churchill, but hundreds of thousands of average allied soldiers who put his policies into effect and beat down a great evil. There is only one Dubya, but 150,000 troops liberating Iraq and trying to make a risky-but-visionary effort succeed.

All those “average” men and women, who sojourned or marched or fought had a degree of greatness and nobility to them, and it could be found in their principles or their determination or their steadfastness – but they still, in each case, needed someone with a distinctive edge, with just a tad more “greatness” to bring them together. And there is absolutely no reason not to recognise it.

There have only been 43 American Presidents in 230 years. There have only been 267 popes in 2000 years. There have been billions of other people. Greatness is not an illusion. And it is not fomented with easy praise. I worry sometimes that our over-indulged, over-applauded youngsters may not have the requisite strength within themselves to find their “greatness” when they (and we) will need it.

— From Shame, Praise, American Idols & Undercutting Greatness