The Rise of the Everyman

Imagine, if you will, the following picture. You’re sitting down, getting ready to watch the next Democratic or Republican convention nominee accept his party’s endorsement. The music swells and up comes… your next door neighbor. I think I just felt you shudder with fear. You are saying, “My next door neighbor isn’t qualified. He isn’t smart enough. He isn’t, well… presidential!”

Your neighbor is just like you: normal, ordinary. Not what a world leader is supposed to be like. When we picture a world leader, as our president is, we picture men like Ronald Reagan, FDR, Abraham Lincoln, or George Washington. They were men with charisma and conviction, who were compelling speakers with ideas that inspired both individuals and the nation. They were leaders, whose persona was larger than they were. They were Presidents of the United States, and they were great.

Every four years, we look for the man, or woman, who will fill those large shoes; shoes that are almost too large to filled by any person. And every four years, more often than not, we are disappointed when that person does not appear at that nomination podium. Maybe it’s that disappointment that has lead to an interesting trend; what I call the rise of the everyman.

In case it wasn’t a trend, the pollsters, pundits, and campaign strategists have made it one. They take a candidate and make him “one of us”; an everyman. Al gore in a flannel shirt, Bill Clinton playing his sax on TV and eating Big Macs, George W with his poor grammar and cowboys boots, and Sarah Palin with her homespun phrases are all recent examples of this. It is not enough for a candidate to be accomplished, experienced, wise and driven; they have to be one of us. We have to be able to imagine them as someone who you could kick back on a Friday night and have a beer with. Anything else is stuffy and elitist.

Over and over in opinion polls and “man on the street” sound bites, people talk about likeability as a main reason for their support of a candidate. They like the way that h their candidate seems to be a “good guy” who understands him. However, the reality of most candidates is quite different. The vast majority of them are not like us; and if they started out that way, they aren’t anymore. Al gore was born into wealth and a political dynasty. Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar who became a law professor and married an Ivy League grad. George W was born into a wealthy family and had the luxury of under appreciating a Yale education. While Sarah Palin may have been born into a middle class life, she became a well paid local sportscaster before her political career. As governor of Alaska, she had a staff on call to help her manage and balance her family and her home life with her career. Not quite average lives, are they?

The hypocrisy gets peddled because it works; it gets candidates elected. But it’s a double edged sword. We love these candidates because they are “real”; flawed just like we are. Once they get into office, though, we expect them to all of a sudden to become presidential; the representation of the best of us on the world stage, our better. This is something an “everyman” cannot be and we turn on them when they fail, when they act in a way that we would. Look at Bill Clinton and his womanizing and George W with his embarrassingly awkward gaffes. Even worse is when it is shown to be an act, like Al Gore in a plaid flannel lumberjack shirt.

Americans want substance, we need substance, but we don’t demand it. We take the pre-packaged image placed in front of us and settle for it. However, it’s not the image that leads in a crisis or that has the wisdom and experience to come up with solutions to international problems. This is not the realm of the everyman. He worries about the things that affect him, without a lot of thought about the things that don’t. Not exactly the characteristics that befit a president and major world leader, and certainly not the image that we as a nation of that stature wish to convey.

Next time you find yourself thinking of pulling the lever for an “everyman” candidate, ask yourself if you would feel safe and confident with your next door neighbor as President of the United States.