Apparently, Hilary Clinton was quite the letter-writer during her college years.
It may be a bit unfair to peg an enigmatic candidate's personality by reference to letters written during their college years. Clearly, people change as they grow older... and I would hope that my middle-aged self will have grown enormously from my college years.
Still, there is something revealing in the way Hilary talks about people. She asks:
"Can you be a misanthrope and still love or enjoy some individuals?” Ms. Rodham wrote in an April 1967 letter. “How about a compassionate misanthrope?”
This resonates deeply with how I see the current Senator Clinton, particularly in comparison to her husand: as a masked misanthrope. A very capable, intelligent (maybe brilliant), driven, even diplomatic and politically astute misanthrope... but a misanthrope.
She's never convinced me that she really likes or loves the people who she serves as an elected representative. Bill Clinton's gregariousness was effortless, he was the epitome of an extrovert, someone who gained enormous energy and enjoyment from being around people. Rich or poor, black or white, Southern or Eastern, Bill Clinton seemed to just love interacting with people, it was apparent from his grin, handshake, and concerned eye contact.
Hilary has always seemed like she enjoys interacting with some people (such as her quips with a Texas Congressman during health care hearings, as shown in Michael Moore's Sicko).
And she's not out of place when glad-handing at a rally, or working a room at a fundraiser. Clearly, she has very refined social/interpersonal skills.
But she's lacking a certain love of humanity, an enjoyment of people in a very basic, raw, way.
To be fair, Obama isn't a model extrovert himself, as he's a little too serious to be truly enjoying social encounters. He does seem to be very concerned when interacting with others... he demonstrates a very deep and sincere care for what they have say, and seems to want to communicate a desire to use government to address their problems. His interactions have a parental/political-guidance counselor-feel.
Ultimately, I don't want a misanthrope at the helm of our democracy. I'd rather have a caring guidance counselor to lead us out of this mess.
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3 comments:
Those Hillary letters reminded me of the goggle-glasses dorky girl in high school who knew everything about Hegel at the age of 16. Would all us liberal arts kids be so verbose and self-absorbed if we still wrote "letters"? It's ironic that a someone who clearly prided herself in top SAT level vocabulary went on to choose a profession in which she has to speak at the lowest common denominator (YouTube-ready sound bites) in order to engage a constituency.
My reaction was a little different from Michael's, but I guess I'm one of the few people that knowing everything about Hegel at the age of 16 would endear you to.
You make a good point about Hillary - on a pretty basic level, from the beginning, it's seemed to me that she doesn't give a shit about anything but her own advancement. It's a facile observation, though. The minutiae of personality have become the core of our judgment of political candidates. I suppose in this time, that's all we really have.
I'm annoyed that all we have are little snippets provided by the Times. But I was pretty instantly depressed, mainly at the fact that we don't write letters. Also, I realized that Hillary is smart. I tend to dismiss figures like her, but this material makes that impossible.
oh yeah - and neither of the frontrunners for the democratic primaries are "model extroverts." good for me.
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