James Nichols Jr.
Aug 25, 2017 · 4 min read

Great essay Tod. I agree that we must avoid “worshiping” any person, especially a contemporary politician. As a confirmed atheist, the idea of any form of “worshiping” of anything save Reason and Science is anathema to me. But is it wrong or bad to have political heroes? I think not. For as Plutarch and other ancients taught, it is from the lives of such heroes that our young can learn ideals like political courage, strength, mercy, forgiveness, and the avoidance of things like hubris, greed and intolerance, and thereby learn to govern best. That is one of the reasons why Plutarch wrote his histories of the lives of some of the political (and military) heroes before his time. But as Plutarch makes clear, even the ancient heroes he wrote about had their flaws and made mistakes, sometimes with tragic consequences. But their flaws and mistakes do not make men like Solon, Cimon, Pericles, Phocion, Demosthenes, Tiberius Gracchus, Cato the Younger and Cicero any less worthy of being called political heroes for what they accomplished, in my view anyhoo.

In my mind there have also been many political heroes in our nation’s past and throughout the world. I certainly would regard George Washington, Thomas Paine, John Quincy Adams, Abe Lincoln, FDR and Eisenhower political heroes. On the world stage Churchhill, Nelson Mandela, and Gorbachev qualify as political heroes in my mind. Yes all of the foregoing people had flaws and made mistakes, but on balance they should be considered and treated as political heroes. If we don’t have political heroes, as you suggest, who do our young and up and coming politicians learn to model themselves after? The possibility that some moron might “conflate” esteem for a political hero with worshiping him is far outweighed by the usefulness or benefits from having such heroes, at least in my view it is. We are in desperate need of a good, inspiring political heroes; we should not be afraid or reluctant to look for them because we might end up “worshiping” them. That’s just plain wrong.

To me the crux of the problem with Trump and Trumpism is not so much hero worship as it is widespread and profound ignorance, stupidity, racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia among a huge portion of the American populace — possibly 25% or more of voters per recent polls. It is not hero worship that keeps them wedded to Trump as much these factors combined with economic desperation and fear. Trump is not so much a political hero as he is a master manipulator who knows how to play to different crowds, as he demonstrated this week in his appearances in Phoenix (who attendees wanted red meat and got it) and Reno (who VFW attendees wanted more decorum and decency and got it). I don’t think Trump’s supporters people will continue to “worship” him “permanently and irrevocably”. I think they will turn on him when they finally get it through their thick skulls that he is nothing but a charlatan and that his promises to “drain the swamp” and “make America great again” are unadulterated as the Irish musician sang in Edinburgh, bullshit. At that point the only ones who will still consider him a political hero are the rancid racists. If they constitute 25% of voters, we are fucked as a nation.

Perhaps if more Americans would learn about and esteem people such as those mentioned above, we would not be faced with the current monstrosity in the White House. In any event, no one to my knowledge has ever said or suggested that “all past acts” of those political heroes ought to be “permanently and irrevocably” esteemed, let alone “worshiped”, so that they are above or beyond any criticism for having carried them out. Even my personal greatest political hero, Abe Lincoln, has been rightly criticized in a number of books.

Nor have I heard of the esteeming of the “future acts” of anyone. To give Trump a blank check of esteem, so to speak, by “assign[ing] the value of one praiseworthy act to all … [his] future [acts]” is beyond “conflation”; it would be madness, even Trump’s most ardent supporters would probably agree.

Again, there’s nothing wrong having “political heroes”, even a contemporary one — if you can find one; worshiping anyone with the possible exception of one’s father, father-in-law or dog, is of course ridiculous with or without “conflation”. As for me, the closest I have come to finding a political hero was Barack Obama. But despite his many fine attributes and good things that he did as a politician, his failure as president to provide stronger leadership of his supporters rendered him less than heroic, in my admittedly unpopular opinion. But I may change my opinion before I die. And meanwhile I certainly would understand why some of his supporters may still believe he is a political hero, especially when judged against the current president.

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