Ever since Harry Truman stumbled into the Oval Office, Americans have had this love affair with politicians who are "just one of us." Large segments of the population have got this crazy idea that the local carwash worker, or starbucks barista, or soybean farmer, or even hockey mom, could be just as great a president as someone who has actually gotten an advanced college degree and risen to a level of success that makes him or her "elite."
Well, truth be told, Ike was not "one of us." He was the general who won WW II. Hardly "one of us." And we loved him.
And JFK was not "one of us." A Massachusetts patrician who was a Harvard grad and a war hero, he was also from one of the richest families in America. And we idolized him.
Nixon was, I suppose, "one of us," if you consider "us" to be a group of scheming, ugly, utterly amoral people. Turns out, this "one of us" kind of failed us. Perhaps he was too much "one of us."
Now Gerald Ford was one of us, but we had a hissy fit and got mad at him and turned to another guy who seemed like "one of us." A peanut farmer who wore sweaters and went to church, Jimmy Carter looked like "one of us." Except he wasn't. He was a lot smarter than us. Like John McCain, he went to the Naval Academy, but unlike John McCain who graduated fifth from the bottom of his class, Carter ranked 59th out of a class of 820. Then he worked on nuclear submarines. He spoke the truth and was ahead of his time when he warned about our future energy crisis. No dummy, that Carter, but we threw him overboard for a guy who we were sure was "one of us" - Ronald Reagan.
Now how could I possibly say Reagan was "one of us" when he was a Hollywood actor and enormously wealthy? Because he was an ACTOR. He acted the part of "one of us." With his anti-government populism (as oxymornonic as that actually is), his "aw shucks" demeanor, he fooled the nation. His "government is the problem" mantra appealed to the blue collar guy who somehow thought it was the government that was giving him a raw deal while it was rewarding those n'er do well "welfare queens" and inner city criminals (read: black guys). Reagan may have said it was going to be "morning in America" but what he really did was appeal to the worst in us - hate, prejudice, and envy. And he packaged it in a smiling persona that was going to defeat Communism by the shear force of his personality.
George H.W. Bush wasn't "one of us," but then neither was Dukakis, so people voted for Reagan one more time, even though he ran under the name of Bush. Then along came Clinton.
Now Clinton was an amazing politician in that if ever there was a person who was not "one of us," it was Clinton, with his Yale education, and his appointment as a Rhodes scholar, and his IQ in the stratosphere, but he knew how to sound like "one of us." Clinton's success as a politician was that he presented himself as a regular joe, his success as a president, however, was in not being "one of us." He was and is smarter than us. And that's why he gave us eight good and prosperous years.
Then along comes George W. Bush, one of the dumbest human beings to ever run for president. But he was able to convince enough Americans that he was "one of us." (We apparently don't have too high an opinion of ourselves.) And he has damaged every single thing he touched, from the military to our relationship with other countries, from the economy to health care, from energy to the environment. We have had a disastrous eight years because we chose "one of us."
Now we are at another crossroads. The richest and most stupid candidate in the race, John McCain, is painting himself as "one of us," (those Republicans are really good ad men) and the smarter candidate, is being painted as "elite" and "not one of us." Of course he is also black, which to many Americans is the real reason he is not "one of us." But if America finally does what it did before Harry Truman, and elects someone who is clearly smarter than us, as it did when it elected FDR four times, then maybe Barack Obama has a chance not only to be elected, but to turn this country around.
We have so many problems right now, we need someone who is not "one of us." We need someone way smarter than us. Yet, John McCain, surely an ignorant man, was losing until he chose someone even more ignorant to be his running mate, someone whose entire foreign policy credentials consist of her being able to see Russia from Alaska, according to the McCain campaign.
Why is this so? Why is Sarah Palin making the McCain campaign more successful? Because Sarah Palin, according to Americans, is "one of us."
Well, Sarah Palin is not like me and not like most of you. She is dumber than dirt, just like McCain. But she is a good actor, like Reagan and Bush.
Couple of things to contemplate here:
The Founding Fathers were not "one of us." They were highly educated elites who understood things ordinary farmers of the time did not, and they wrote the most brilliant political document of all time: The Constitution of the United States. And the people of the time respected them for their intelligence and their educations.
On the other hand, it is that "one of us" Reagan who is the godfather of the financial mess we are in now on Wall Street as well as Main Street. It is Reagan who started this whole anti-government, free market, deregulation mess that has us close to a second great depression. It is Bush II who put the final nail in the coffin of our financial demise. It is Bush II who took us from surplus to debt, who has turned over our wealth to China, and who keeps fighting an immoral war. This is what candidates who are stupid do. This is what happens when we elect "one of us." So by all means, let's do it again. Let's keep poking sharp things in our eyes and sticking our hands on a hot stove, like that skit on Saturday Night Live, and then say "I hate it when that happens."
And as for Harry Truman, our first "one of us" candidate, he is responsible for ushering in the nuclear age. He is responsible for dropping the only nuclear bombs ever. He is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents. He is the one who thought that was the only way to end WW II, when history shows that the Japanese had already signaled their desire to surrender. He is the one who, with this action, made the Russians feel they had to also become a nuclear power. He is the one who ushered in the Cold War that had us tied in knots for fifty years, and caused the proliferation of nuclear weapons to several other countries.
Harry Truman may have been "one of us" and Sarah Palin proudly compared herself to him at the RNC, but one can only imagine what Sarah Palin could do to this country if she ever - god forbid - became president. Perhaps she would finish what Harry started. Perhaps the nuclear genie would come home to roost and we would finally get pay back for what Truman started.
Wake up people. A failure in college, a man who openly admits he knows nothing about the economy, is not smart enough to run this country. And as attractive and appealing as she may be, Sarah Palin does not have what it takes to run this country.
The stakes are too high this time. They were high eight years ago and we have now lost eight years.
We don't need another president who is "one of us." We need a president who is smarter than us.
