I record and closely watch each of the Republican debates in fascination. It's like a mix of a classic TV realty program and Alice in Wonderland. Given the mindset of the American Voter, one of these individuals has a chance of being the next President, so attention must be paid.
I had been rooting for Mitt Romney, as being incrementally more reasonable than the other real contender, Rick Perry, until this weeks event. After a long preface describing the challenges we are facing, the question was asked to each of the candidates, "How are we going to turn this country around?"
These are tough times for a lot of people in this country. But, we are a patriotic people, we place our hand to our heart (as he demonstrates) during the playing of our national anthem No other people on earth do that.
And if we are lead by a leader who draws on that patriotism, who tells the truth, who lives with integrity, and who knows how to lead, America will remain the hope of the world and the strongest nation on earth. I'll do it!
In a word, his answer to how we will turn this country around, is "Patriotism."
We will all fall in line behind a strong leader who will marshal this force that we have more than any other country, because, as he says, only we place our hand on our hearts when we hear the National Anthem. Romney seemed oblivious of another country that compelled their people to engage in similar symbolism, until it stopped doing it abruptly on May 8, 1945.
The patriotic salute of the right hand has a long tradition, and it is rarely one of individual choice. It ostensibly represents deference to country, but usually is to the a leader. It is popular with autocrats because it is a clear obvious public symbol, the absence of which becomes an immediate identifier of a lack of obeisance to authority.
Symbolism matters. You would perhaps think that Romney, as a member of a minority religion, would have a shared deference for another such group, Jehovah's Witnesses. This group not only doesn't put their hand to their heart for the National Anthem, they make every effort not to be in a place where they are obligated to stand when it is performed.
They feel quite strongly about showing such mandated deference under the guise of patriotism; So much so that over ten thousand of them chose to go to Nazi concentration camps rather than express such patriotism, in their case the hand was outstretched, but the principle was identical. Mitt Romney would consider these martyrs unpatriotic, as he obviously reviles such individual choice. The object of expression of our patriotism he so admires is to a national anthem just happens to be about the glory of military victory, "And when conquer we must, when our cause it is just, let this be our motto, in God is our Trust."
"When our cause it is just." Of all the questions fed to the Republican candidates by their media colleagues, endless repetitions about "Obama's deficit," none broached the question of whether our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are, in fact, "just." None of the questions were premised on the the fact that at the least half of the national debt that they abhor is a result of these wars that were initiated by the previous president, Republican George W. Bush.
Yes, it is a Reality show based on fantasy, where the eight people, one of whom may be our national leader, get to promulgate a mutually agreed upon picture of the world where nothing bad happened before January 20, 2009, and nothing good afterwards. Facts be damned; in this show they don't matter, unless there is a rare disagreement among them, and then any conflict can be assuaged with the universality of their condemnation of the current president.
I would say that among the eight candidates Romney is the brightest, attendance at Stanford and Harvard with advanced degrees in Law and in Business. He expresses himself with a pitch perfect controlled forcefulness, with just the hint of bemusement. Perry is the perfect foil for him, showing that he can be both tougher and smarter.
But this patriotism riff, obviously thought out and tested, went a bit too far for me. No, I'm not his target audience, but his equating simplistic patriotism, the absence of it being what...un-American or in times of war even treasonous, is a bit much, especially with the hand on his heart. While this might work for Perry, born into poverty and making it to Texas A&M; or even a benighted evangelical who had been weaned on of this stuff; from Romney it comes off as contrived hatefulness, not only towards Democrats but to those who understand what really does make this country unique.
And we know, as does he, it's not that we put our hand to our heart when the national anthem is being performed; it's that we have the freedom not to.