I guess I don’t understand politics unless I assume that politicians think we’re a lot dumber than them. A small example; why would anti free-traders rant about the trade deficit. It has virtues, too. A surplus, say by the Chinese, enables them to lap up those strong, safe US Treasury bonds. (Would you rather have a ten year Treasury or a Bulgarian note?) and other bargains in American assets. Great, let them finance America. But the anti free traders never dwell on that.
But maybe the Pols are right about Joe Voter. How many Americans understand that the flip side of our trade deficit has this blessing. But still, I don’t understand politicians. Elizabeth Edwards feels the breath of death on her cheeks; fanned with incurable, but treatable cancer. John Edwards’ reaction? “The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly,” and poses with his chin up and a grin that outshines the flashbulbs.Well, his reaction, to this observer, speaks poorly for a warm and empathetic heart, and loudly advertises a flaming ambition that makes Macbeth look like a rural Scottish postmaster. Here’s a sick woman who needs sympathetic attention and the husband throws himself into the arms of his own vanity: a 24/7, grueling devotion to his soaring dreams of grandeur. Selfish, most of us would call it. I bet if you select a hundred plumbers and a hundred politicians — put them in a similar setting — career vs familial responsibility (plumbers have dreams, too, you know) the politicians would shrug away their mates at a 3 to 1 clip over plumbers; or poets, or accountants, or computer programmers.
It’s the worm of vanity at their heart. Politicians, Hollywooders, and rock stars, I’m afraid, see two versions of that universal set of rules based on the decalogue. One for them and one for us. I’ll bet that Edwards never even suspects that John Voter wonders about his moral normality. The candidate, with a politician’s mind and heart, is utterly blind to the negative shadow on his character. And worst of all, how many hypocritical allusions will we hear about his “brave and battling” wife? Be prepared for buckets of self-serving tears and vomitous truckloads of hypocrisy. I still can’t believe he’ll go through with it. Too much — even for a politician.
And how will his handlers explain such egomania? Won’t voters perceive vanity defeating love? “I got it,” says the campaign maven — 3-time consecutively elected Dog Catcher in Hilltop Height, North Carolina. “John’s a superman intensely devoted to both the public and poor fragile Elizabeth. He Campaigns by day — sits by her bed reading inspirational poetry by night. Sleeps at the foot of her bed.”
Maybe I’m too hard on him and his vanity-stricken colleagues. But anybody who shakes hands with the devil waves goodbye to the family. Even we voters should understand that.
