OCTOBER 22, 2008
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'This election," said John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, on the second day of the Republican convention, "is not about issues." And he meant it. The convention that Davis helped assemble devoted strikingly little time to policy. Instead, the focus was on McCain's biography. Fred Thompson set the tone early in the convention, using his address to recount McCain's life story, especially his stint as a prisoner of war. In state delegation meetings during the week, the campaign enlisted the candidate's fellow POWs to tell delegates of his experiences in Vietnam. During McCain's acceptance speech--which also reflected on his years in captivity--delegates waved signs reading REAL AMERICAN HERO. McCain, the convention made clear, was not running for president based on foreign policy or economics--or ideology of any sort at all. He was running on heroism.
Democrats have tended to dismiss this strategy as a product of desperation--and, in some ways, it is. In a year when the issues dramatically favored his opponent, McCain had to find another organizing principle for his candidacy. But just because a strategy is born of desperation does not mean it is bound to fail. Even in the midst of war and economic distress, American political campaigns have often hinged on character as much as issues. And, throughout U.S. history, voters have frequently looked for heroes in their presidential candidates. McCain, moreover, isn't just any old hero. His life story--which includes a narrow escape from death, followed by a resurrection story of sorts--resonates with Americans' deepest fears and hopes about their own mortality. The psychology of heroism, it turns out, is capable of exerting a powerful pull on American voters. It may help explain why McCain outlasted his better-financed foes in the Republican primaries--and why, in a year when the Democratic nominee should by all rights be crushing his Republican opponent, Obama hasn't been able to put McCain away.
America's founders made character count in presidential elections, devising the office of the presidency to combine the functions of king (that is, head of state) and prime minister. George Mason called the presidency an "elective monarchy." Today, the presidency continues to combine these two offices, which are separate in parliamentary systems. As prime minister, the president sets policies and directs government; but, as head of state, he is also a symbol of the aspirations of the people. Accordingly, both policy and character typically play a role in presidential campaigns.
Voters look for different kinds of presidential character. Sometimes, they look for candidates they can identify with--candidates whom they see as "one of us." Harry Truman, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush fit that bill. Sometimes, they look for strong and caring parental figures--like Franklin Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan. But many times they have looked for heroes, and particularly military heroes. All in all, 13 presidents--from George Washington to Andrew Jackson to Ulysses S. Grant to George Bush the elder--have been elected primarily or partly on the basis of their status as military heroes.
Not all of these heroes turned presidents were the same, however. To be clear about McCain's appeal, we need to distinguish among four varieties of heroism, with the proviso that some heroes will qualify for more than one variety. First, there are heroes as models of success--Michael Jordan in basketball, Meryl Streep in acting, Steve Jobs in business. They are individuals whom people want to emulate. They don't necessarily exhibit any commendable moral qualities or leadership ability, although a conviction for child abuse or a betting scandal can dim their luster.
Second, there are heroes as effective moral-minded leaders. Generals like Washington and Dwight Eisenhower fit this mold. They are admired and respected for their leadership ability, but are not necessarily models because their achievements are seen as being beyond the aspirations of an ordinary individual. They are the objects of what Thomas Carlyle, in his book On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, called "transcendent admiration."
Third, there are heroes as death-defying moral exemplars who risk their lives to save others or to adhere to a high moral standard. These would include Medal of Honor winners and the passengers of United Flight 93. John Kennedy, of PT-109 fame, fit this category when he was running for president.
Finally, there are heroes as death-defying world-historical leaders who physically risk themselves to save or advance a people or a country. These include Jesus, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King. These are the rarest, and most esteemed, of heroes. In an August 2001 Harris Poll that asked respondents to name their heroes, three of the top five choices were this kind of figure.
McCain fits the profile of the death-defying moral exemplar. He was not acting as leader of a nation or a people when he was imprisoned at the Hanoi Hilton. His heroism consisted of inviting torture and risking his life for the sake of upholding the military code, which forbade him to accept release while POWs who had been imprisoned before him continued to be held. But, while McCain's actions don't match those of the world-historical leader, they still strike a plangent chord with the public. Why? The reason, it turns out, has a lot to do with the fear of death.
Hero worship as a whole is probably rooted in early feelings about one's parents--a child's first models of success and leadership--but admiration of death-defying heroes reaches more deeply into the psyche. It, too, is informed by early feelings about fathers and mothers, but it also derives implicitly, or sometimes explicitly, from our fear of death. Thoughts about death are not usually conscious, but they nevertheless play an important role in our reaction to people and events. Fear of death, wrote Ernest Becker in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Denial of Death, "must be present behind all our normal functioning, in order for the organism to be armed toward self-preservation. But the fear of death cannot be present constantly in one's mental functioning, else the organism could not function."
What is important about death-defying heroes is that they are seen as having been able to overcome their own fear of death. In The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James wrote, "No matter what a man's frailties otherwise may be, if he be willing to risk death, and still more if he suffer it heroically, in the service he has chosen, the fact consecrates him forever. Inferior to ourselves in this or that way, if yet we cling to life, and he is able 'to fling it away like a flower' as caring nothing for it, we account him in the deepest way our born superior. Each of us in his own person feels that a high-hearted indifference to life would expiate all his shortcomings." Becker made a similar argument in The Denial of Death. "Heroism," he wrote, "is first and foremost a reflex of the terror of death. We admire most the courage to face death; we give such valor our highest and most constant adoration; it moves us deeply in our hearts because we have doubts about how brave we ourselves would be."
One way to gauge the depth of this kind of hero-worship is to look at its prevalence in classical mythology or religion. These are universal barometers of our deepest fears and wishes. The first mythological heroes, as psychologist Otto Rank pointed out, always combined the mortal and the immortal. Later, the great mythic heroes had to endure repeated tests and conquer their fear of death in order to triumph. Theseus could only return to found Athens after slaying the Minotaur. Aeneas had to journey to the Underworld before founding Rome. Other mythic and religious heroes not only confronted death, but actually died and rose again. Becker describes Christianity as a competitor of several mystery cults of the Eastern Mediterranean, which, like it, featured a "divine hero ... who had come back from the dead."
In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell's extensive study of myth and religion, he writes that "everywhere ... the really creative acts are represented as those deriving from some sort of dying to the world; and what happens in the interval of the hero's nonentity, so that he comes back as one reborn, made great and filled with creative power, mankind is also unanimous in declaring." McCain, of course, is not Aeneas, and his experience in Hanoi was not the stuff of myth. But much of his story's appeal comes from the same psychological sources that drew ancients to their culture's prevailing myths, and--ironically, given that conservatives have frequently accused Obama of presenting his candidacy in messianic terms--the same sources that still draw believers to the story of Christ's heroism and resurrection today.
McCain's story, like those of ancient heroes, hinges on his brush with death--what came before, during, and after. First, there is his pre-heroic period: McCain as carefree adventurer and lover. Like Odysseus (who tried unsuccessfully to feign madness in order to avoid fighting in Troy) or Buddha (who spent his first 29 years luxuriating as a prince) he did not seem clearly possessed of the qualities that would later distinguish him. "In high school and the Naval Academy, John earned a reputation as a troublemaker," recounted Fred Thompson in his convention speech, before going on to note that "in flight school in Pensacola, he did drive a Corvette and date a girl who worked in a bar as an exotic dancer under the name of 'Marie, the Flame of Florida.'"
Second, there is the period of "dying to the world," characterized by withdrawal--in McCain's case, into prison--and by the threat of death. Here is Thompson describing McCain's early days in the Hanoi Hilton: "His other broken bones and injuries were not treated. John developed a high fever and dysentery. He weighed barely a hundred pounds. Expecting him to die, his captors placed him in a cell with two other POWs who also expected him to die." In McCain's own speech, he said, "I was dumped in a dark cell and left to die." (McCain's speech contained eight references to individuals, including himself, dying or facing death. Obama's speech in Denver contained one.)
Third, there is the period of McCain's rebirth and re-emergence. After McCain returned home a "national hero," Rudy Giuliani said in his convention speech, "he had earned a life of peace and quiet, but he was called to public service again, running for Congress and then the Senate as a proud foot soldier in the Reagan revolution." Note Giuliani saying that McCain was "called to" public service, as if he ran for office not out of ambition, but in response to a summons from on high. McCain himself described his captivity as being "blessed by misfortune." It transformed him. As he put it in his convention speech, "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. ... I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's." McCain, like the great religious figures, had abandoned his mortal self. It became merged, however, not with a people or a religious group, but with a nation.
The difference between McCain and other recent war heroes turned politicians lies in the continuity he has established between his acts of heroism and his later political life. McCain has successfully portrayed his brush with death as the foundation of his selflessness. "I do believe that when you look back at my history, it's just remarkable that with all the things I've been through that I'm still here," McCain told Scott Pelley of "60 Minutes" last month. "And I interpret that as an opportunity to serve a cause greater than my self interest. " In other words, the man willing to lose his self became the selfless politician who put "country first."
In the 2004 election, John Kerry attempted to parlay his own heroism in Vietnam, for which he received a Silver Star, into political success. Like McCain, Kerry was a death-defying moral exemplar. Like McCain, Kerry dedicated much of his convention to telling his story. But, ultimately, Kerry's strategy did not work. Most Democrats assumed later that Kerry was thwarted by the scurrilous Swift Boat ads that questioned his heroism. But the real problem lay in Kerry's inability to establish thematic continuity between his heroism and his political life. His antiwar activity after returning home (which, at the least, required explanation) and his justifiable reputation as a political flip-flopper (which suggested a lack of courage) posed problems in this regard. As a result, Kerry's heroism didn't resonate the way McCain's has.
To be sure, McCain's recitation of his own heroism is contrary to the ethos of heroism. The hero, exemplified by George Washington, is supposed to be modest in retelling his exploits. In Revolutionary Characters, Gordon S. Wood quotes a Frenchman marveling about Washington: "He speaks of the American War, and of his victories, as of things in which he had no direction." The hero--again typified by Washington, who astonished his compatriots in 1783 by abandoning public life--is also not supposed to take advantage of his renown. To do so would be to exploit his reputation for being above self-interest to achieve a self-interested objective--a blatant contradiction. But McCain published an autobiography in 1999, which he and his staff promoted at campaign appearances during the 2000 primaries; and, during this year's Republican primaries, his campaign featured a twelve-minute video highlighting his captivity and survival, as well as appearances by his fellow POWs.
McCain has tried to get around this problem by sometimes downplaying his heroism. "A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did," he said in his convention speech. And he has continually insisted that he speaks reluctantly of his own experience. When an ABC News reporter asked him this summer whether his time as a POW qualified him to be president, McCain "bristled" at the question. Later, he explained to the reporter, "I kind of reacted the way I did because I have a reluctance to talk about my experiences." Historians, surveying McCain's career, are unlikely to be convinced by such protestations, but the public seems to have accepted them. It has focused on McCain's heroism rather than on the fact that he and his campaign are using it to their advantage.
Last April, Gallup ran a poll that asked people about McCain's heroism and how it affected their view of him. That poll, taken well before the campaign had begun massively advertising, confirms that much of McCain's appeal lies in his reputation as a hero. Sixty-six percent of respondents thought McCain was a "war hero," including 58 percent of Democrats. Thirty-eight percent said that McCain's military service made it more likely they would vote for him, and 15 percent said it was a "major factor" in their support. Those who said it was a "major factor" included 14 percent of independents and 10 percent of Democrats.
There were no similar polling questions after the Republican convention. Instead, pollsters, who seem to take their cue from cable news, were obsessed with measuring Sarah Palin's effect on the GOP ticket. Perhaps as a result, few observers seem to have considered the very likely possibility that McCain's post-convention bounce was caused less by Palin--whose popularity, after all, is largely limited to right-wing Republicans--and more by McCain's relentless efforts at the convention to reinforce his image as a hero.
But, even if the perception of heroism was responsible for McCain's post-convention bounce, it's far from clear whether it will be enough to carry him across the finish line ahead of Obama. McCain's status as a hero is wrapped up with the kind of nationalism ("country first") most dramatically inspired by a quasi-religious understanding of foreign policy as a struggle between good and evil. And, since voters' attraction to McCain's brand of heroism is triggered in part by concerns about their own mortality, it is bound to be strongest when foreign threats are at the forefront of political debate. At the moment, however, foreign policy and the specter of terrorist attacks have been overshadowed by a financial crisis and an economic downturn. These constitute less favorable terrain on which a war hero can stake his reputation.
And yet that doesn't mean he can't try. When McCain recently suspended his campaign and announced he was returning to Washington to help solve the financial crisis, many commentators saw a desperate politician trying to reassure voters that he really did care about economics. But there was more to it than that. McCain was trying to change the subject of the presidential campaign from economic policy to leadership--from issues to character. By dramatically swooping into Washington as if he alone could resolve the crisis, McCain was doing exactly what had worked so well for him at the GOP convention: He was reasserting his heroism. He did the same thing at last week's debate, beginning his closing statement with the following words: "When I came home from prison ..." Will this gambit succeed? Who knows what will happen on November 4, but heroism as political strategy has so far kept McCain close in a year when no Republican should have had any shot at capturing the White House. And, in that sense, it has already worked.
John B. Judis is a senior editor at The New Republic. This article originally ran in the October 22, 2008, issue of the magazine.
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29 comments
John, if you write political psychology articles, you need to use real political psychology. I know Jungian and Freudian stuff makes for a better story, but the field of psychology long ago put aside most of what they had to say. This is like if you used obviously wrong history in an article because it helped your point more if you pretended that the South won the Civil War.
- Mizzou
October 3, 2008 at 6:18pm
Sorry John, I phrased that too strongly. I do think if one writes an article utilizing Jungian or Freudian influenced political psychology, one should justify upfront why they are not using the current, more accepted theories of political psychology.
- Mizzou
October 7, 2008 at 4:30pm
Its easy for me to disagree with the beginning of this article. Yes. There just may be some people who are drawn to heroism for a political candidate. But that is far from the reason why John McCain is still in the race. You leave out the more evident facts. John McCain taps into the fear of his supporters and inflates them to get a tighter grip on their support. This would be likely to happen during a time when more than half the country ISN'T supporting him. You have to acknowledge common sense as well. Being a POW doesn't make you qualified for much of anything. Maybe if he were President and escalated the war to a point that all Americans became POWs, then he could give us all a few tips. But that's about it for McCain. FEAR is the only thing on McCain's side. No policy. Just a bunch of repeats.
- HarvardJanitorial
October 13, 2008 at 12:23am
Mr. Judis, Your commentary on McCain and heroism is very apt and well-argued. But there is another and kind of heroism - doing your job very well, rather than defying the limits of human reality. That is the kind of heroism I have analyzed in my book, "On Ordinary Heroes and American Democracy" (Yale U. Press and Paradigm Publishers). Perhaps you would find this alternative suggestive. Thank you for your attention.
- Gerald Pomper
October 13, 2008 at 10:10am
Camp Obama can come back by accusing McCain's Camp of being devoid of Character and ethics due to the fact that if one has to lie, smear and distort another's record or character in order to "look good", that is dishonest and it lacks moral character and ethics. You cannot trust that type of campaign to be honest or above board with the American people. They do not have the American's people best interest at heart. Of course, Camp McCain will lose if they talk about economics, because their economics is for the rich, the well-off and well connected. It has nothing for the poor and middle class.
- Angellight
October 13, 2008 at 10:47am
To Mizzou, What do you regard as more modern political psychology? Where are the Jung and Freud standards employed in the article?
- James A. Bradley
October 13, 2008 at 10:55am
In 2004 John Kerry too offered up his Vietnam war record, which included several medals for heroism and testamonials by the entire crew of his swiftboat of how he risked his life to save theirs and was injured during a battle with the enemy. The GOP responded by handing out bandaids with purple hearts drawn for convention delegates to derisively wear on their cheeks, implying that Kerry's injuries were minor, as well as forcing the US milirary to issue a statement defending Kerry's medals (I never heard of that happening before). Kerry was then the target of ugly campaign ads and bogus books and articles questioning whether he was even in combat at all, as well as faking his injuries to get out of the military (these same people gave Bush a free pass on his 11 months of being AWOL during the Vietnam war and getting out of his military duty with help from his daddy). Now we are supposed to all bow down to McCain's military experience and allow that to be his sole reason to deserve being president? I don't think so!
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October 13, 2008 at 11:28am
Excuse me, Mizzou, but the only country in the world in which Freudian and Jungian ideas are not accepted is the United States, which has a system based on behvaiorism that doesn't even work. I suggest you research a little about the current psychology field in the United States, you'll see how inept and useless it is.
- Daiana Kanaf
October 13, 2008 at 11:45am
As I recall, Kerry tried the same sort of thing--saluting when he took the podium at the Democratic convention. It obviously frightened the Republicans enough that they felt they had to discredit his military experience (via SwiftBoat torpedoes). But the focus was on the war then, and it still wasn't enough to "carry Kerry". I don't think it will be enough in this new war either.
- donroy
October 13, 2008 at 1:01pm
Terror Management Theory, which transforms the theories of Ernest Becker into testable scientific hypotheses, is about as modern as political psyschology gets, and this article clearly draws on Becker's writing about the psychological and cultural importance of heroism. Judis has written about the ongoing political implications of TMT. McCain's heroic image draws more directly on colonial American literature, history and mythology. One of the earliest forms of colonial literature was the Captivity Narrative -- the story of a European settler who was captured and held by the Native Americans. Such captives were political rallying points for the colonists, for their stories framed the settlers as the victims of Native Americans rather their victimizers. Out of captivity narratives came rescue narratives, since whatever else divided colonists, they could always rally around military action to rescue the captives. Rescue narratives are the basis for the characteristically American narrative art form -- the Western.
- Ken Hughes
October 13, 2008 at 1:10pm
John McCain's willingness to spend every last ounce of political capital he has in his Hero Account on a repugnant and distastrous presidential campaign has shown people just about everything they need to know about how relevant youthful heroism is to septuagenarian political challenges.
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October 13, 2008 at 2:04pm
McCain is still fighting Vietnam. One minute he was top-gunning those "commie gooks" in their cities and rice paddies and the next he was in a prison camp for five and a half years. He's lucky they didn't kill him on the spot. After all, that's what he was doing to them. Many would consider his bombing runs over Hanoi the activities of a war criminal. I'm sure he came home wondering how did we "lose"? After all, we had all the fire power, the carriers, the aircraft, the men, the economics - we were the "super power". I'm sure he thinks we lost because we didn't have the "guts" to pursue "victory". We were "betrayed" by those nasty "librals" "Stabbed in the back" so to speak. Sounds llike some German Corporal's excuse for losing the Great War. Of course we all now know (except maybe for John) that a "commie" Vietnam was no danger to the United States; that their war was one of nationalism vs. colonialism. They fought the Japanese, then the returning French colonialists, then their American successors. There are 58,000+ names on a black wall that we "honor" - kids mostly. Kids drafted off the poorer streets of America, given a few months of basic and dropped in a faraway country to "kill commies". Most died while Nixon vowed to bring the troops "home with honor" When pols use that expression it usually means someone else's kid has to die for an empty slogan. Too many died too far away from home for far too little. There is no honor in that. Too many kids died at Kent State. My bedroom set is marked "Made in Vietnam". Those kids died for nothing. Who knows how many "Top Gun" McSame killed dropping bombs on civilians in another war that never had to be fought?
- toritto
October 13, 2008 at 2:46pm
It would be incorrect to say that no one uses Jung or Freud directly. Archetypes and drives are foundational concepts in psychology. The theories are not used as they were outlined but form the fabric of psychology. More to the point, I think Mr. Judis has inadvertently arrived at why the public looks for heroes....they see within these figures idealized archetypes which appeal to certain inner drives.
- Marius
October 13, 2008 at 3:33pm
Fear is the only reason McCain is still in the race? Please. I sorta think bi-partisanship might have a bit to do it as well. Obama "talks" about reaching across the aisle. Name one major Democratic policy he's stood against his party on. Just one. Now look at McCain's record. Yeah...I thought so. End of discussion.
- Mike
October 13, 2008 at 4:35pm
James--The concept of the heroic archetype is Jungian. Mr. Judis' references work by men like Otto Rank, a Freudian, or Campbell, a mythologist. Pick up any good political psychology journal and see how often Freudians, Jungians, anthropologists, and mythologists are referenced.
- Mizzou
October 13, 2008 at 5:25pm
There is one sense in which John McCain is the perfect -- I might even say iconic -- "heroic" figure for this utterly pathetic age in which we live. There was a time when the term "war hero" actually meant something. Washington created an army out of nothing, commanded it, and created the nation; Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans and thereby saved the Louisiana Purchase territories for the country; Grant saved the Union; and Eisenhower was entitled to put the glorious entry "Savior of Western civilization, 1941-45" on his resume. Those were heroes for ages that understood clearly that the only heroes (please also read "heroines") worth admiring are members of that currently most reviled of species, the (gasp!) "elitists". Yes, Virginia: people who really are better than other people, who aren't in any way, shape or form "regular guys" (unless Olympus is your neighborhood and standard),who do things that other people can't do, no matter how high their insufferable "self-esteem" may be, and whose efforts actually leave the world a better place than they found it. (This last point, one should remember, isn't exactly irrelevant when judging trua heroism. A person who runs into a burning building to save another person is a hero; a person who runs into a burning building just for the sheer hell of it is a nut.) McCain, by contrast, is that most envied of modern creatures, the Professional Victim. Bottom of his class at the Naval Academy? Hey, that just proves he isn't one of those intellectual snobs. Crashed five planes? Anybody can have a bad day(career). Captured and imprisoned for five years? He was VICTIMIZED; and what better qualification for high office can there be? Incredibly (and yet, this age being what it is, how predictably) the one genuinely heroic thing he did in all this -- turning down a chance at early release-- is the least mentioned. And so what if what happened to him did not leave anyone, himself most certainly included, better off? He suffered; end of discussion. I am reminded in this context of a scene at the end of Bernard Malamud's marvelous novel "The Fixer", where Beilis, a Russian Jew undergoing anti-Semitic persecution in Tsarist Russia, confronts the Tsar in a dream. The Tsar counsels him "Surely, Beilis, your sufferings have taught you the value of patience." "I'm sorry, Your Majesty", Beilis replies, "but the only thing my sufferings have taught me is the utter uselessness of all suffering."
- helios
October 13, 2008 at 7:35pm
WAS MCC A POW? I NEVER HEARD HIM SAY THAT... WHEN DID IT OCCUR? WHICH WAR? CIVIL OR SPANISH?
- lyle edward
October 14, 2008 at 12:57am
I agree with Daiana Kanaf. Look to the big pharm to see the development of psychology in America. To think that it is left only in scientifically verifiable hands sans cultural history is a bit ludicrous. Mizzou maybe you could point out some actual current political psychological journals, books or schools. If you look around Jung is anathema on campuses and has been for decades. If you also look systems derived from his collated psychology are in practice, look at the Meyers-Briggs tests. McCain's closefisted attempt to use the heroic archetype as his narrative may be an attempt to fit himself inside the notion of heroism but it doesn't ring true. Mizzou if you want current political psychology look to Slavoj Zizek.
- Pfiffigkeit
October 14, 2008 at 4:06am
I have always found it difficult to accept McCain's POW experience as being classically heroic. I think of a war hero as an active player, someone who provides leadership to achieve victory or save others. By contrast, John McCain, for the most part, played a passive role. He experienced great suffering and he survived. I agree with Helios, McCain was a victim. Hardly a qualification for the presidency. I also find it ridiculous to tout 'being a maverick' as a qualification either. To me a maverick has connotations of being undisciplined, unpredictable, chaotic, irrational and grand-standing. Kinda like the McCain campaign - a disastrous strategy.
- Lois
October 14, 2008 at 3:23pm
From Dreams of My Father:'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.' From Dreams of My Father : 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race.' From Dreams of My Father:'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.' From Dreams of My Father: 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.' From Dreams of My Father:'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself , the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.' And FINALLY the Most Damning one of ALL of them!!! From Audacity of Hope:'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction FOLKS ITS NOT ABOUT RACE OR RELIGION - ITS ABOUT HONESTY, OBAMA HAS LIED HIS WAY THROUGH THIS WHOLE ELCTION. - WAKE UP AMERICA, THIS MAN WILL SERIOUSLY HURT AMERICA
- johnr
October 14, 2008 at 4:19pm
John Kerry was a war hero, and it did not work for him. McCain seems to have no honor these days so we will see if it works for him as well. As a Psychology student, I too have noticed the hero cycle, but it's actually Obama who fits that and not McCain. Obama-Biden '08
- Holly
October 14, 2008 at 4:48pm
Maybe it is time for the politicians to understand that American's are not ignorant of the importance of the issues. Certainly a POW does not a president make. This became obvious over the last crisis. When you talk about who has "BEEN THERE" Obama is the candidate of obvious choice. The politicians are generationally rich and do not have a clue to the fact that Americans are essentially poor. They also are not stupid. McCain cannot lead when your first concern is to become president and your second concern is of the American people. I am giving McCain the benefit of the doubt here. When you have a huge income and 7 houses and 100% health coverage, How can you know the American people. This is why McCain will not be the next president. He simply "doesn't get it." Neither does the media. I think the biggest disappointment for the media is that Obama makes the media, the media does not make Obama. The same cannot be said for McCain. Later Masterdel
- Masterdel
October 14, 2008 at 5:29pm
Whatever the merits of the current theories of psychology used in the US or elsewhere, the premise of a campaign founded on heroism is that the heroic person will fearlessly place "the good of the country" above all self-interested motives and protect the country from self-interested parties seeking to benefit themselves at the expense of the country and its citizens. The "Country First" sloan epitomizes that appeal. The difficulites that John McCain has had in selling that brand stem from a number of sources, not the least of which is his membership in a Republican party that the public perceives, rightly in my mind, to have engaged in nothing but self-interested pursuit of profit at the expense of the country for the entire Bush Administration. McCain tired to distance himself from that milstone by declaring himself a "maverick", but the people he chose to retain to run his campaign, and the campaign that he has allowed them to run, have almost entirely undermined the "maverick" claim. The McCain campaign has failed to put forth any major policy initiative that distinguishes itself from the Bush Administation, and its foreign policy prescriptions sounds very much like what we heard from the White House before the Iraq invasion. Moreover, because the Hero-as-President proposition relies very heavily on the sterling reputation of the putative hero, the untruths spread by the McCain campaign regarding Senator Obama's record on matters ranging from kindergarten education to alliances with terrorists only served to undermine his heroic narrative. All of this might have not mattered in frothier times when Americans had the luxury of quibbling over who was more often caught without a flag pin, when the bottom fell out of the stock market dragging American's retirement savings with it to the basement floor, people became much more willing to peer behind the jingoistic kabuki dance aimed at "Joe Sixpack" and conducted by Karl Rove proteges and ask questions about who was more willing to look out for the average American. When the did, they reflected on whose pockets had been filled by Republican policies past and whether it looked as though Senator McCain had the willingness or ability to stand up to the forces that put them in place. When they noticed that McCain was having trouble leading his campaign as the hero he wanted us to think of him as, and that he'd found it necessary to turn the reins of the campain over to the Republicans operatives that sold them George W. Bush, that left little to recommend McCain as a "leader for troubled times" that he now wants to be known as now. The upshot is that the Hero-as-President narrative has been significantly deflated, and American's are willing to give Senator Obama a shot at the top job becuase he's given them no reason to think that he isn't qualified.
- Tom in Denver
October 14, 2008 at 6:19pm
would someone please explain to me why john mccain is considered a hero? i really don't get it. because he disobeyed orders? because he bombed civilians? because he was captured and tortured? he was not fighting for our freedom--we had not been attacked by vietnam. he was not fighting for anyone's freedom. i don't get it.
- marnie
October 14, 2008 at 7:22pm
I think the most important part of Judis' essay is not the debatable aspect of McCain's heroism but the need for death-denying images and symbols - however unconscious - for most of us mere mortals to feel secure in our political leaders. We can see it in Bush's popularity after 9/11; we can see it in how American soldiers are portrayed generally as freedom-deliverers; and why McCain continues to hang in. Yes, it is fear, but it is fear of mortality (which is presently being manifest with the economic crisis and explains why McCain does not need to have solid financial policies). For political psychology, read Walter Davis.
- Thomas Patrick Donovan
October 14, 2008 at 7:22pm
Mizzou did not put it clearly. Mcsame's still in the race because of Obama's color
- support
October 15, 2008 at 4:43am
Thomas Patrick Donovan I'm not certain why I should read about a basketball player for political ideas and evaluations? Could you give me a hint?
- Pfiffigkeit
October 15, 2008 at 1:13pm
Why are we not questioning the very issue of what exactly "heroic" Senator McCain did, or even the oft-mentioned "reasonable service to my country" that the Senaator refers to in his stump speeches.
- Brad Sullivan
October 15, 2008 at 7:55pm
From Dream of My Father: "JOHNR is an idiot and he makes things up."
- Holly
October 15, 2008 at 10:28pm