Our Political Process favors Extroverts, Maybe Hillary isn't One
Like many people, Ms. Clinton would not have been my first choice. I have no doubt she is qualified, but she is more of a hawk than I would prefer and is closer to corporate America than I think is healthy. I also have a deep-seated aversion to dynasties. I am troubled by how many leaders in government are the children and spouses of other leaders and powerful people. Leadership is not a genetic trait, but inside access to money and power is something you CAN pass along to your spouse and children. I resonate with people who suggest that Hillary seems “phony”. I share that sense of discomfort when I observe her trying so hard to be genuine. Listening to the coverage this week, I developed a theory regarding the origins of that discomfort that made me feel better about it.
People have said repeatedly that HRC is a policy wonk. That’s great, the devil is in the details and I prefer a leader who understands not only the goal, but also the subtlety and nuance of how to recruit allies to achieve it and how to ease the pain of the opposition. That’s the definition of diplomacy.
NPR the other day interviewed a reporter who followed Hillary in 2008 until she lost the primary to President Obama, and has been following her campaign this cycle as well. The meaning I made of what the reporter said was that Ms. Clinton shines in small groups talking about policy, but appears stiff and uncomfortable in a crowd. That’s when the light bulb came on for me. I suspect Hillary is both an introvert and a nerd.
I’m a nerd myself and I speak fluent nerd. I know and love a lot of nerds. I have many nerd friends. I think President Barack Obama is a nerd too, but the president and I are a rare breed of nerd – we are extroverts (me more than him, but that’s quibbling).
I’m comfortable speaking to large groups of people, speaking to strangers, trying new things in public, and laughing at myself. I enjoy novel situations. I like people. I like people to like me. I like rolling on the floor with little kids. I dance badly, but have fun. I don’t much care who thinks I’m a fool. Life is a circus, you can watch or you can participate.
Here’s the thing – I can engage in and get away with occasionally outrageous behavior because I am genuine. You might roll their eyes and smile, but if you have known me for two minutes, you know that’s who I am – I’m being myself (whether that thrills you or not). Humans have instinctive senses, evolved over millions of years, to detect when someone is not being genuine. It’s how we have survived the millennia. When the stranger from the other tribe who spoke a foreign tongue approached with an open hand, was he trying to get close enough to strike or did he really intend peace? Guess wrong and you don’t procreate -that’s natural selection for discernment.
Sociopaths can fool us pretty easily (See: Trump, Donald J.). Con men and good actors can learn to fool us, but most mortals have a hard time convincing us when they try to be something they are not. What our spider sense is telling us when it triggers the alarm is not very refined – it doesn’t say, “Warning: He said he went to Harvard, but the way he crinkled his nose when he said it suggests he’s a state college guy.” Instead we get a blunt message – “Something is not right”.
In a country of over 300 million people, we don’t usually get to have intimate conversations with our prospective leaders. We go through a silly ritual where we ask them to give variants of the same speech a hundred times to large groups of people and convince us that they are likable and qualified and agree with most of our positions. That ritual is rigged for extroverts, who would be inherently more comfortable with that role than introverts and would tend to be more successful as well. Introverts would be at a disadvantage because the situation makes them uncomfortable (large groups of strangers watching your every move and assessing your words to judge you) and if that discomfort were detected by the finely honed radar of your observers, they would go on alert – “Something is not right”.
Here’s my theory. I have heard a number of people who know HRC well suggest she is charming, intelligent, thoughtful, and passionate about helping people. The president, who I respect, chose her (a former political opponent) to be Secretary of State and seemed pleased with her performance. She has a history of public service, and certainly is smart. Her biggest obstacle seems to be that she is a nerdy introvert trying to play a game designed for extroverts and her discomfort shows. When people detect that discomfort at a subliminal level, they are put on guard – and more open to some of the crazy conspiracy nonsense from the extreme right to try to understand and rationalize their own vague unease.
My bottom line: I’m with her. I hope we can tone down her hawkish tendencies, take a few steps away from Wall Street, and clean up the primary process – but I’m with her.
