Not to be Human

When the Republican majority in the House of Representatives was an accomplished fact, the response of John Boehner was to break down and shed tears of great joy and triumph. The response of many of the news agencies was to carry stories about the tears of joy. There were cynical, snarly comments made about “public tears” and Speaker Boehner was forced to defend himself in several television interviews. There seems to be something in the public opinion that does not want leaders to have emotions.

In fact, in this time immediately after an election now is a good time to look at the burden and limitations we, the public, places on the people who we expect to lead us. We may say we want people like us, people we can talk to, people who think like we do, people who share our values and our ideals, but there is also a very narrow and limited range of emotions they are permitted to have.

Some people will remember that before there was a Mitt Romney running for President there was in l968 a George Romney running for the Republican nomination. George had been a public supporter of our war in Vietnam, but during the campaign he honestly confessed that he felt he had been “brainwashed” by the military as to the reality of the war. In fact, most American accepted the military version of what was happening in Vietnam until things fell apart, but the public never considered George any further after his confession. We don’t want somebody like us who could be deceived by experts.

Tears really have been a problem. In the l972 campaign for President Senator Ed Muskie was the leading candidate for the nomination for the Democrats. On a snow afternoon in New Hampshire in front of a newspaper office the strain of campaigning and the dirty tricks of politics were too much. Ed Muskie broke down in tears. His frustration at the attacks on him and his wife flowed out in tears. He was never considered a serious candidate after those tears. No wonder John Boehner wanted to defend himself for his tears. It has been one of the great arguments against a woman president. She will be too emotional.

No trust, no tears. Howard Dean showed us we don’t want anybody with real passion that brings a scream to his lips. We have dismissed a number of high public servants from office because they told some jokes that most of us would have laughed at. We have just defeated Bob Etheridge, in part, because he showed some anger and was not polite to those invaders. There is a pretty serious straight jacket we want to put our public officials in.

If we want good, honest, hard working public officials, is it too much to ask to allow them to be able to laugh, to cry, to be angry, to admit that they get taken in by experts. It is reported that the shortest verse in the Bible is Jesus wept. That cry from the cross, “Why have you forsaken me?” is a pretty loud scream of anger as I hear it. Perhaps it will be a good thing if John Boehner is able to cry. Maybe we need more public figures who show emotions? Maybe?