Almost every diary I've read here in the last some months has someone, or several someones, asking how Mitt got this far? He's wooden, he's unlikeable except to his peers, he has no record of succeeding anywhere - even Bain & Company needed a government bailout after his attempt to save it failed. And we all know how much the Evil Government had to invest in order to buttress his "I built that!" rescue of the Olympics.
He seems to be a very successful vulture capitalist, but that's a playing field pre-loaded for greed to succeed. I suspect, after watching and listening to him for a while, that he's a minimally successful vulture, that a really smart guy would have at least tripled his financial impact.
So, I got tired of waiting for the inter-library loan system to bring "Blink" into my hands and bought it for my Kindle. (I'm on a Malcolm Gladwell run.)
Chapter 3: The Warren Harding Error: Why We Fall For Tall, Dark, Handsome Men
(See, there was a method to that awkward shift.)
Why? Follow me below the orange croissant.
Warren Harding, age 35, moderately successful in the news biz, met and captivated Harry Daugherty at a shoeshine stand. Harry Daugherty was the Machiavelli of Ohio politics, a brilliant strategist. He was struck by how Presidential Harding looked - tall, handsome, imposing, well built, graceful and apparently gracious and likeable. Daugherty took Warren under his wing, got him elected to various public offices where he did not shine. His forte was womanizing.
His speeches? "...an army of pompous phrases in search of an idea." Sound familiar?
He managed to miss the debates on two of the most important issues in politics, Women's Suffrage and Prohibition. Apparently it was his wife, Florence, who abetted Daugherty in advancing Harding up the ladder. He seems to have been a willing participant, as long as it didn't interfere with his true love, amassing large numbers of females willing to share his bed.
As he aged he became even more distinguished looking, more Presidential appearing. He rose to the top when Daugherty convinced him to run for the Presidency in 1920, the convention deadlocked, and he was the compromise candidate because he looked like a President. He won. His death two years into his first term has kept him relatively obscure to most of us but he holds a place in the hearts of historians - the worst President in history.
Further on in Chapter 3 there's an analysis of height and CEO positions. It starts with wondering why so many utter mediocrities end up in powerful positions. They have no skills, they have no brilliance but they're at the top of the heap in business. Most probably have a splendid female executive assistant who keeps them from utter bombout on the way up, but apparently it's their height that gets them into corner offices. (This book is a great read, I strongly urge everyone to buy it today. The CEO stats will amaze you!)
As I read I kept thinking of Romney and Ryan. Mostly Romney.
He gave a decent acceptance speech, he wasn't as wooden or as flamingly inchoate as he usually is. Why? He was surrounded by people who were at least willing to act as though they adored him, and he was riding on the high of watching Clint Eastwood treat his opponent, the President of the United States, like the bad ni**er Mitt wishes he was. When he's surrounded by his peers I'm sure he's charming enough to make us wonder who stole the Mitt Romney we see and shake our heads over.
Romney is, indeed, an empty suit, but he's the exact kind of empty suit this country elevates to top positions. He looks the part. He isn't Warren Buffet successful because he hasn't those gifts. He's Warren Harding successful because he can attract enough Henry Daghertys to keep him upwardly mobile. They find the bailout money he needs when he's failing on his own. They praise him because he's the epitome of what they wish they were - privileged, handsome, tall, distinguished looking. He's the closest they're going to come to the top of the heap, so they unite their forces to get him there.
He's wooden on the campaign trail because it's the only place he's not completely protected by sycophants. He doesn't seem to have a vision because a vision has never been required. He looked the part, he got the role, he was able to rely on his posse to keep him in the role. A Presidential campaign is so far beyond his capacity even his inner circle can't keep up the energy required to get him elected. Without Super-PAC money he'd never have gotten through the primaries. Without Super-PAC money and a bought and paid for media he'd be trailing by double digits in the general. Without angry white men, racists of all stripes, and 3 years of propaganda about the foreigner in the Oval Office he'd be a bad joke on late night talk shows.
There's no mystery to Mitt and his success. He looked right.
There's one other thing that's critical here. Go toIAT Race test It looks at Implicit Associations, which is well worth studying and really explains the endemic racism/sexism/bigotry that we puzzle about. We live in our culture, and we are bombarded with information constantly. Underneath what we're conscious of believing are the unconscious beliefs that explain, to me, why Obama isn't looking at landslide numbers.
There's only one way to change your results on Implicit Association tests. You have to be exposed to something very positive first. There's a touching story about a research assistant who took the Race IAT every day, trying to change his pro-white bias by thinking his way to a different attitude. His only success followed his watching the track and field Olympics the night before. He saw black runners win and the emotional impact of seeing success for black people, seeing them be the best of the day, was enough to change his preference numbers for that day.
We're not completely in the grip of our unconscious minds but our only way out is to experience things things differently. If you want to improve your positive associations with black people, or women, homosexuals or immigrants or even Christians you have to be with them, you have to have positive experiences that overcome the negative associations you've been programmed with.
I'm pretty sure President Obama is aware of this, and his public persona reflects his awareness that people fear him because of how he looks so he has to work very hard to be the opposite if he's going to change that bias.
It's too simple to write Americans off as basic bigots. The ethos is there but it changes when positive experiences enter the framework. Think about the fight for human rights for non-heterosexuals. If there weren't a huge number of brave individuals who came out of the closet and took the flak we would be where we were in the '50's. It's easy to hate gays in the abstract, less easy when they live down the street and rescued your runaway dog.
Nothing is as simple or as clear-cut as it appears to be. I have a new part-time job, one day a week with a woman who was blinded in the Embassy bombings in Kenya in 1998. She's a pistol. My sister recommend me for the job and warned her that I was a political maniac, like her brother who lives with her. Within our first 5 minutes together she told me she wasn't paying me to talk politics, she wasn't interested.
Last night she called me. "I need to understand. Is it true the Republicans are lying about Obama?" "Yes." she said, trying not to rant. "How can they do that?" "They have no choice, it's all they've got. If Paul Ryan's budget fantasies are enacted the deficit will increase by at least 2 Trillion dollars. You'll pay 2000 a year more in taxes, Romney's tax rate will be .82%. You and I depend on Medicare, Social Security. You are surviving on government assistance you deserve. That will be cut." "But what about Obama being a socialist?" "If he's a socialist, so was Jesus." explosive laughter. "You're right, how funny I never figured that out." Many more questions. I ended by telling her that anyone who votes for any Republican at this point is voting for The Greatest Depression Of All. She's won over, I know she is, and the "Jesus is a socialist" meme will be spread throughout her circle. There's now a positive association with Obama that is easy to maintain.
Do it. The opportunities arise. I need that job so I can keep my health club membership. Losing it means I'm endangering my health but I had to be blunt and honest. It paid off, in the least likely quarter I'd have expected. Do it.
You are the change you've been waiting for.