It Gets Better... Or At Least It Should

In the short time we’ve had with 2015, two high profile politicians have already stepped down from their post in varying degrees of disgrace.  A governor and congressman have resigned from office in the last seven weeks, one as an ethics commission investigates whether or not he broke ethics laws when his fiance received state contracts, and the other after admitting to tax evasion from a life prior to his time in politics.  And now, I’m going to connect those two acts of crime... with President Obama’s BuzzFeed video for the Affordable Care Act.  And by acknowledging the anachronism, I hope to convey that this isn’t just an utterly insane rant against the President of the United States, but rather an even-tempered, well thought-out rant against the President of the United States.

Now, I’ve heard the case for this video.  That it was actually a brilliant move to take his affordable health insurance market pitch to where the young people are, his target audience.  But let’s be honest, he didn’t have to do it himself.  He has a cadre of celebrities that could have garnered the same attention to it.  Heck, his teenage daughters, who are actually where the young people are in that they’re young people, could have done something and it would have been as successful.  Maybe even more so, considering it would have been the debut appearance of the Obama girls on the public stage.  I can’t say why the President decided to do it himself.  I have thoughts, but it’s just conjecture, and more importantly this really isn’t a rant against the President nor an attack on his character.  The issues with this video are deeper and bigger than him.

First, it was a shameless sales pitch by the President for his policy, a far cry from the days when Presidents found it beneath the dignity of the office to campaign on their own behalf.  Okay, that one does seem to be a shot at the President’s character, but the truth is that issue is not specific to this politician or this video.  Too many politicians mine the depths of dignity today.  What we saw in this video, though, specifically, was our President acting the fool: winking at himself in the mirror, sticking his tongue out at himself, shooting finger guns at himself while modeling aviators and, worst of all, posing for selfies.  These are things the video bills as “Things Everyone Does But Doesn’t Talk About,” and that premise takes us to the larger issues.

I want you to consider that title and think about all the things that you do but don’t talk about…  Yep, all of that.  Is that the person you want as your Commander-in-Chief?  Representing America on an international stage?  Being the face of human rights and dignity?  Dealing with the Islamic State and negotiating with Iran over nuclear weapons?  That person doesn’t really inspire confidence, does it?  And that touches on the bigger concern: it’s not very inspiring, at all.

The video is meant to humanize the President, but should the Leader of the Free World be humanized?  Humans make mistakes.  They have deficiencies, flaws and faults.  They even commit crimes.  They give favor to loved ones.  They skim a little off the top to keep some of their hard-earned earned money.  And they can be forgiven for that because, hey, they’re only human.  We all make mistakes.  But politicians need to be more more than just a person.  They need to be better than us.  To represent thousands or millions of people, you need to be more than a mere human, you need to be super-human.  You need to be someone we can be proud to look up to and follow.  Someone who inspires.

The President of the United States is supposed to inspire people, particularly young people, probably more than anyone else in our country. And because of certain circumstances, this President has been given the opportunity to inspire more young people than any President before him.  And these young people all across the country are supposed to look up at this man and say, “One day, I want to be the President of the United States.”  They shouldn’t say, “Ya, I’m already there. In fact, I should take a picture of this.”  Leave it to the selfie generation to put a premium on being just like us, right?  

Yes, we’re all told we’re perfect just the way we are, but we’re not.  Not really.  And if you believe you are, then you’re probably insufferable.  The truth is, we can always improve.  We should never rest on our laurels.  We should always strive to be better.  And our leaders and our heroes are the ones who are supposed to inspire us to strive to that next level.  They’re not mutants or aliens or gods that represent a perfection we can’t attain, but real people who have overcome the basest of human deficiencies to rise above.  Someone we can actually pin up as a model to emulate.  Of us, but the best of us.  But when our heroes are just like the rest of us, then what do we strive towards when we’re already where we need to be?

Re-calculating

I want you to imagine America as a car- probably a pick-up.  And we’re driving this pick-up down a long highway.  There are other cars on this highway: Fiats and Hondas and Volkswagens and Hyundais and Volvos and Jaguars, but we’re focusing on the American truck right now.  And it’s riding down this seemingly endless line of road.  Straight and steady, all the way.  But after driving straight-as-an-arrow for so long, the highway begins to ever-so-slightly veer to the left.  It’s so slight, it’s barely even perceptible, and so we continue on straight without any adjustment to the wheel.  

Sure enough, though, after a while, our front right tire slowly encroaches on that yellow line.  Now, we’ve been on this path for so long, maybe we don’t even realize it, maybe we became complacent behind the wheel, and so we continue to hold straight and steady.  In fact, even when we’ve completely crossed that yellow line, we’re so set in our way, we still don’t think to turn.  Even when we rumble over the tread strip and are jerked back to, we still can’t believe or won’t accept that we need to change course.  We check the rearview mirror and then look ahead, and it just doesn’t feel like turning is called for.  Not until we finally bounce off the guardrail, scraping metal to metal, sparks flying and damage is undisputed do we finally realize we need to turn, but by then it’s too late for rational thought to dictate action.  And while a slight adjustment would take us to the middle of the road, the natural reaction is instead to grab that wheel with both hands and pull a hard turn away from the rail, and now... we have four female Ghostbusters.

For so long a time, and more than too long by all of it, we thought nothing of keeping a woman in her place.  It was the general rule that men took care of business and women took care of the home.  Now, it’s only acceptable to allow that Beyonce and women run the world.  

Up until recently, we called anything we didn’t like “gay” and thought nothing of it.  Homosexuality was seen as wrong and a perversion, and that was taken as gospel.  Now, we are more understanding and respectful of homosexuality, but calling God’s flock backwards, mouth-breathing, incestual cretins is completely kosher.  In fact, ironically, the only instance where “gay” is still used as a way to kind of insult someone today is when pinning that rainbow flag on conversion therapy pastors.  

There was an over-extended period of time in this country when black people were kept down.  They couldn’t sit where white people sit, eat where white people eat, learn where white people learn, and this was an improvement over the previous period.  Now, we have Affirmative Action and streets and highways are shut down to show #BlackLivesMatter, but apologies need be extended for proposing the possibility that all lives matter.

Now, let’s be honest, it’s still probably more beneficial to be a straight, white man in this country than it is to be a gay, black woman.  And one can say that without incurring wrath.  But if it were to be put in a slightly different way, as: “Straight, white men are better than gay, black women,” then there would be letters.  On the other side of that, if one were to say “Gay, black women are better than straight, white men,” there would still be letters, but they’d be made up of individual letters cut out of magazines.  A fringe response which shouldn’t be ignored, but not one that neither represents nor influences American society, and therefore far less substantial.  And that substance of the matter is what’s being overlooked here.  We’re getting to a point where there can be no substantive reason to critique a minority.  

The Libertarian Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul has come out against the current nominee for U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, for what he sees as stances she has taken that infringe on Americans’ rights.  He’s given clear and specific examples.  And in response, the Congressional Black Caucus has said he’s just trying to keep a black person from reaching a high position.  This, while Sen. Paul is working with Senator Cory Booker, a black Representative from New Jersey, to reform our criminal justice system so that more young black men can still have the opportunity to rise in this country.  That’s substantial, but if you have an issue with a black person, then you’re a racist.  Simple as that.  If you have an issue with a woman, then you’re a misogynist.  With a gay person, you’re a homophobe.  And with a straight, white man… well, then you probably have a point.

“Well, it’s only right after all those years of damage done to women, gays and black people.”

But is it right?  Is it right that all men are punished for the insecurity of the boys?  All of the people of God for the sins of the zealots?  And all the white people for the white supremacists?  We’ve been working so hard to put an end to the unfair prejudices that women, black people and gays face just for falling into a category; is it right to just shift that prejudice to different groups?  Are we ending inequality, or just transferring it?  Is hatred like energy?  Can we not destroy it, just change it from one form to another?

“Well, all women, gays and blacks were collectively tucked under the blanket of discrimination.”

Yes, but shouldn’t they then be against that behavior all the more so?  Senator John McCain is not shy about war.  He may even be more hawk than man at this point.  And he has not been soft on the radical Islamic terrorists threatening civil life as we know it.  Yet, few were more vocal in their support of the humane treatment of these mentally-stunted neanderthals than Senator McCain, likely because of his own experience as a POW victim of torture.  

And with all that said… I breathe a deep sigh and say: Maybe it is right.  Maybe it doesn’t matter if it’s fair.  Whether or not everyone participated in it, the culmination of circumstances and discriminatory practices has led to a White Boys Club that has made it more difficult for others to rise.  Not impossible, but harder, and it’s hurting our society.  Something has to be done; but what?  We’re stuck between a guard rail and a divider here.  We either continue holding the wheel as we are and crash into the other side, or course correct now and move on with just the damage already done and do all we can to ensure we incur no more.  The sad truth is, there is no great option here.  No matter what we do now, we’re damaged.  But the question I keep coming back to is: Do we really want to crash into the other side, just to even it out, when in the end it’s just more damage that we’ll all have to pay for?