DEMOCRACY:
Government & Politics | January 14, 2005
THE
ESSENCE
OF
CHARISMA
An
E-Mail to a Democratic Activist
In
Response to the Article "Clintonism, R.I.P.:
How
Triangulation Became Strangulation",
By
Chuck Todd, in The Atlantic Monthly (Jan./Feb. 2005)
Thank
you...that was a very well written and thought-out piece. I can
see what the central problem is: Too many voters think that the
Democrats really don't stand for anything but winning. Kerry's
positions were too nuanced to fit on a bumper sticker. Clinton's
sexual escapade and, more significantly, his lying bald-faced to
the public made all his compromising -- necessary for any
governing -- seem very unseemly and, thus, made the apparent moral
certitude of Bush all the more attractive (not unlike what got
Jimmy Carter elected, after Nixon et al.). But the bottom
line is as it has ever been in politics, or in almost any other
realm of human relations: People will tend to believe in someone,
and follow him or her, if they are seen to truly, sincerely,
passionately believe in something greater than themself. That, to
me, is the essence of both "charisma" and sincerity --
the two most attractive qualities in any politician, and the most
dangerous if employed to the wrong ends (Hitler was positively
mesmerizing; then again, so was Jesus).
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