Sweet melodies of the Imagination: On Political
Leadership
While some pundits compare
Trump’s style and political swagger and outright racism to fascist leaders from
Stalin to Mussolini and Hitler, a more apt comparison is to what American
political leadership looked like during the Cold War.
The glory days of WWII were
over, and one of the great sociologists of the time, C. Wright Mills (1916-62),
concluded his landmark book, The Power
Elite (1956), with this to say: “America—a conservative country without any
conservative ideology—appears now before the world a naked and arbitrary power,
as, in the name of realism, its men of decision enforce their often crackpot
definitions upon world reality.”
Though referring to the
leadership of the 1950s, the notion of “crackpot definitions” seem appropriate
in the current political climate, where our yesteryear enemies are now our
friends in the Middle-East and vice versa, and where the embargo on arms-sales
to Vietnam has been lifted.
Mills continues to say that
“the second-rate mind is in command of the ponderously platitude.” This
assessment could be levelled against the presumptive presidential nominees of
both the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as any of the foreign
policy wonks in Washington or those offering their informed opinion on
television networks.
But if the scathing critique
of the non-ideological conservative tenor of Republican politics makes some
liberals smile with self-confidence, beware of what comes next: “In the liberal
rhetoric, vagueness, and in the conservative mood, irrationality, are raised to
principle.” What was true in the 1950s is still true today, some sixty years
later. Have we learned nothing from hallow expressions and rhetoric of liberals
and conservatives alike? Have both
parties done nothing to get beyond their
respective platitudes?
For Mills, echoing
Eisenhower’s warnings about the military-industrial complex, an unholy alliance
has evolved in the 20th century between “privately incorporated
economy”—or what we call today the privatization of public institutions, “the
military ascendancy”—or what we perceive today as the sacred cows of the
military budget, and “the political vacuum of modern America”—or what is
claimed today in the name of outsiders challenging the political establishment.
The “political vacuum,” as any
scientist will readily testify about vacuum in general, is bound to be filled
at some point. For us, this is the empty verbiage of Trump’s announcements coupled
with the idle promises of Sanders and Clinton. It’s a vacuum because no real
and substantive political debate is afoot: no candidate is digging deeper into
the soul of American politics with its checkered past and manifest destiny.
Ideology isn’t a rant against this or that target, but a sustained examination
and of the logic of ideas that inform our political economy. No political
leader is engaging the public at this level of public discourse.
American political leadership
then and now is saddled with moral insensitivity and even irresponsibility,
forgetting who is being represented and led and who requires protection and
support. If the same logic of the 1950s that saw the confluence of power in the
hands of economic, military, and political elites remains intact today, we are
in trouble. Trump’s and Sanders’ ascendancy is merely a symptom of a deeper
illness. That illness in American political discourse is infested by media and
commercial distractions that collapse celebrity fascination with real life.
If the only models of success
in America remain wealthy celebrities—whether entertainers, world-class
athletes, or billionaires who determine policy priorities as if they were
elected officials—we are indeed doomed. To where has the decent American
disappeared? What about hard-working Americans sustaining a modicum of
integrity in the face of financial hardships? What about the celebrated American
ingenuity that already made America great for decades?
This is no plea for nostalgia,
since the historical record of American slavery and slaughter of Native
Americans remains a stain on our national past. But it is part of the fabric of
myths we have weaved over two centuries so as to inspire future generations.
What we need today is neither false nostalgia of a happier past nor empty
promises of a rosy future; instead, we need to work on the conditions under
which every American is in fact an integral part of the American landscape.
If this means rethinking
economic relations, let us redesign our marketplaces; if this means
reallocating some of the defense budget to health care, we can easily manage to
do it; and if this means invigorating our political imagination, then we must
embrace it.
If political candidates can
inspire our economic and political imagination, then they are doing us all a
great service. But when they do so while villainizing segments of the
population, we are in the danger zone of past fascist regimes. Fear mongering
and venting pent-up anger and frustrations are not the only means by which to
inspire people. The sweet melodies of the imagination are much more powerful.
