2012 and the Cult of the Individual

The weird part about writing my column this fall is that I will never see it in print. I am spending the semester in Australia, but I decided at the end of last year to continue writing this column, assuming – incorrectly – that the upcoming election would be both interesting and centered around important issues. So, welcome to election season 2012: the race to the bottom. If 2008 were a baseball game in which the teams tried for home runs, this time around it is all about clearing the benches and charging the mound.

Which is worse for America? A campaign based almost entirely upon falsehoods and platitudes, or one that focuses on the small, petty, petulant problems it has with the opponent? The latter is more depressing, but as we struggle to our knees and begin to look for answers to the questions of the 21st century, both are dangerous. Together, they add up to a depressing election between two men so walled off from the world that they make Don Draper look like the Kardashian family by comparison.

Presidential elections in the modern era have developed a distinct pattern: candidate runs on lofty ideals and promises to change the way Washington works. Then, four years later, the less shiny incumbent desperately tries to retain his grip on power with a barrage of mud slinging that brings out the base and depresses the independent-minded voters who just might cross party lines. We cannot afford another such election cycle.

Today, we view the history of America as the history of great leaders. The 2008 election of Barack Obama was more about the man, his story and his speaking abilities than about any real issues. America is crying out for a knight to appear and lead us out of the wilderness. But this is merely a mistake of our modern cult of the individual. America has always been at its greatest when our leaders were secondary to their ideas; not Thomas Jefferson but independence; not Abraham Lincoln but a house united; not Franklin D. Roosevelt but a new deal for a nation tired of the old one. FDR actually went to great lengths to hide his personal story and the crippling illness that came with it. There is a reason why the United States bloomed under quiet leaders like Eisenhower – a man who understood that duty leaves little room for ego. In our system, no great businessman or cunning politician is enough to bridge the divide. Instead, history shows that it is determined by groups of people who are willing to form coalitions that solve the problems at hand; the Constitution was not written by one man, nor were the Federalist Papers. Lincoln would never have restored the Union without the help of Ulysses Grant. FDR could not have brought change without the help of the shift in public opinion.

Now is not the time for petty issues and character attacks. It is the time for consensus and compromise. You don't redo the kitchen cabinets when the house is on fire. If we cannot set aside minor quibbles like who put a dog on the roof of his car, the marathon time of a vice presidential candidate and the tax rates that certain candidates paid, or move beyond fait accompli like the Affordable Care Act, we will slide into the league of fallen empires. The United States will become one of those giants of history that children will learn about, confounded by the fact that the speed of its rise was matched only by the depth of its decay.

Here is the state of our union going into the fall election: not only is our house divided against itself, but it is also crumbling and close to default. Our middle class has become endangered. Our infrastructure is the shame of the developed world. Our schools are stuck in the industrial era. Our seas are rising and our soldiers are falling. Yet nobody wants to pay to fix any of these problems or to actually discuss tangible solutions. We expect first-world infrastructure, a level of entitlement support developed when lives were nearly two decades shorter and the most powerful military in the history of the world while paying little of our unprecedented wealth.

Rarely before has the magnitude of our challenge been so poorly matched by the level of our political discourse. President Obama earned my vote when he signed the healthcare act that will forever bear his name – a historic achievement that must be defended from the scourge of the Tea Party, even at the cost of another four years of gridlock. The recent Democratic National Convention did a fantastic job of reminding us of the stakes. But despite all the speeches and attacks, neither candidate has convinced me that he will help deliver the solutions the United States so badly needs.