The Cult Of The Hero

The New Republic: Heroism's Grip On American Political Subconscious Has Kept McCain Afloat

(The New Republic)  This column was written by John B. Judis.

'This election," said John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, on the second day of the Republican convention, "is not about issues." And he meant it. The convention that Davis helped assemble devoted strikingly little time to policy. Instead, the focus was on McCain's biography. Fred Thompson set the tone early in the convention, using his address to recount McCain's life story, especially his stint as a prisoner of war. In state delegation meetings during the week, the campaign enlisted the candidate's fellow POWs to tell delegates of his experiences in Vietnam. During McCain's acceptance speech--which also reflected on his years in captivity--delegates waved signs reading REAL AMERICAN HERO. McCain, the convention made clear, was not running for president based on foreign policy or economics--or ideology of any sort at all. He was running on heroism.

Democrats have tended to dismiss this strategy as a product of desperation--and, in some ways, it is. In a year when the issues dramatically favored his opponent, McCain had to find another organizing principle for his candidacy. But just because a strategy is born of desperation does not mean it is bound to fail. Even in the midst of war and economic distress, American political campaigns have often hinged on character as much as issues. And, throughout U.S. history, voters have frequently looked for heroes in their presidential candidates. McCain, moreover, isn't just any old hero. His life story--which includes a narrow escape from death, followed by a resurrection story of sorts--resonates with Americans' deepest fears and hopes about their own mortality. The psychology of heroism, it turns out, is capable of exerting a powerful pull on American voters. It may help explain why McCain outlasted his better-financed foes in the Republican primaries--and why, in a year when the Democratic nominee should by all rights be crushing his Republican opponent, Barack Obama hasn't been able to put McCain away.

America's founders made character count in presidential elections, devising the office of the presidency to combine the functions of king (that is, head of state) and prime minister. George Mason called the presidency an "elective monarchy." Today, the presidency continues to combine these two offices, which are separate in parliamentary systems. As prime minister, the president sets policies and directs government; but, as head of state, he is also a symbol of the aspirations of the people. Accordingly, both policy and character typically play a role in presidential campaigns.

Voters look for different kinds of presidential character. Sometimes, they look for candidates they can identify with--candidates whom they see as "one of us." Harry Truman, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush fit that bill. Sometimes, they look for strong and caring parental figures--like Franklin Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan. But many times they have looked for heroes, and particularly military heroes. All in all, 13 presidents--from George Washington to Andrew Jackson to Ulysses S. Grant to George Bush the elder--have been elected primarily or partly on the basis of their status as military heroes.

Not all of these heroes turned presidents were the same, however. To be clear about McCain's appeal, we need to distinguish among four varieties of heroism, with the proviso that some heroes will qualify for more than one variety. First, there are heroes as models of success--Michael Jordan in basketball, Meryl Streep in acting, Steve Jobs in business. They are individuals whom people want to emulate. They don't necessarily exhibit any commendable moral qualities or leadership ability, although a conviction for child abuse or a betting scandal can dim their luster.

Second, there are heroes as effective moral-minded leaders. Generals like Washington and Dwight Eisenhower fit this mold. They are admired and respected for their leadership ability, but are not necessarily models because their achievements are seen as being beyond the aspirations of an ordinary individual. They are the objects of what Thomas Carlyle, in his book On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, called "transcendent admiration."

Third, there are heroes as death-defying moral exemplars who risk their lives to save others or to adhere to a high moral standard. These would include Medal of Honor winners and the passengers of United Flight 93. John Kennedy, of PT-109 fame, fit this category when he was running for president.

Finally, there are heroes as death-defying world-historical leaders who physically risk themselves to save or advance a people or a country. These include Jesus, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King. These are the rarest, and most esteemed, of heroes. In an August 2001 Harris Poll that asked respondents to name their heroes, three of the top five choices were this kind of figure.

McCain fits the profile of the death-defying moral exemplar. He was not acting as leader of a nation or a people when he was imprisoned at the Hanoi Hilton. His heroism consisted of inviting torture and risking his life for the sake of upholding the military code, which forbade him to accept release while POWs who had been imprisoned before him continued to be held. But, while McCain's actions don't match those of the world-historical leader, they still strike a plangent chord with the public. Why? The reason, it turns out, has a lot to do with the fear of death.

Hero worship as a whole is probably rooted in early feelings about one's parents--a child's first models of success and leadership--but admiration of death-defying heroes reaches more deeply into the psyche. It, too, is informed by early feelings about fathers and mothers, but it also derives implicitly, or sometimes explicitly, from our fear of death. Thoughts about death are not usually conscious, but they nevertheless play an important role in our reaction to people and events. Fear of death, wrote Ernest Becker in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Denial of Death, "must be present behind all our normal functioning, in order for the organism to be armed toward self-preservation. But the fear of death cannot be present constantly in one's mental functioning, else the organism could not function."

What is important about death-defying heroes is that they are seen as having been able to overcome their own fear of death. In The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James wrote, "No matter what a man's frailties otherwise may be, if he be willing to risk death, and still more if he suffer it heroically, in the service he has chosen, the fact consecrates him forever. Inferior to ourselves in this or that way, if yet we cling to life, and he is able 'to fling it away like a flower' as caring nothing for it, we account him in the deepest way our born superior. Each of us in his own person feels that a high-hearted indifference to life would expiate all his shortcomings." Becker made a similar argument in The Denial of Death. "Heroism," he wrote, "is first and foremost a reflex of the terror of death. We admire most the courage to face death; we give such valor our highest and most constant adoration; it moves us deeply in our hearts because we have doubts about how brave we ourselves would be."

One way to gauge the depth of this kind of hero-worship is to look at its prevalence in classical mythology or religion. These are universal barometers of our deepest fears and wishes. The first mythological heroes, as psychologist Otto Rank pointed out, always combined the mortal and the immortal. Later, the great mythic heroes had to endure repeated tests and conquer their fear of death in order to triumph. Theseus could only return to found Athens after slaying the Minotaur. Aeneas had to journey to the Underworld before founding Rome. Other mythic and religious heroes not only confronted death, but actually died and rose again. Becker describes Christianity as a competitor of several mystery cults of the Eastern Mediterranean, which, like it, featured a "divine hero ... who had come back from the dead."

[vafilly23]

Ok, first, McCain was ORDERED by his commander at the camp Not to accept early release. Second and more importantely he continously worked with the enemy. Which at the time was treasonous but understandable IF HE WAS TORTURED. Now if he broke then just imagine if He were President captured, Do you want him to have to keys to all our secrets in his hands to give up to the enemy?

[dredigga]

Joh McCain is genuinely an American hero. Having stated that, do I believe that should make him the President of the United States? No, it does not. If McCain didn''t demonstrate that he would say or do anything to win (picking Palin, lying about Obama''s record and policies, distractions, etc.,) I think despite the open hostility to the GOP by the electorate, he could win. But the Palin silly pick will not go away and I think that is the real reason his poll numbers are dropping faster than a rock.

[cbs_tom]

Posted by mswolfestock at 03:03 PM : Oct 13, 2008

Excellent article! Thanks.

[cbs_tom]

Character is of most importance. It is who you are! A hero is not one who does great things without fear. The hero is the one who has great fear, but overcomes that fear to accomplish the impossible.
What makes John McCain a hero is not his ability to fly or toughness in the face of death. But his willingness to put off an early release so as to follow proticol with other POW''s. He did this knowing that he would be greatly tortured.

[skysoldier75]

http://www.usvetdsp.com/mcianhro.htm

[skysoldier75]

Who says McCain isn''t EXACTLY like Bush?

Look at McCain''s latest economic "gimmick" proposals:

1) "Lower tax rates for investors" - the middle class (Joe Sixpack) is too damned broke, after 8 years of Bush, to have any money to invest, so this gimmick helps only the very rich.

2) "Lower the capital gains tax" - the middle class (Joe Sixpack) is too damned broke, after 8 years of Bush, to have any capital gains to tax, so this gimmick helps only the very rich.

3) "Lower dividend tax rates" - the middle class (Joe Sixpack) is too damned broke, after 8 years of Bush, to have any dividends coming, so this gimmick helps only the very rich.

Can you see the all-too-familiar pattern here? It''s the very same Reagan-Bush-McCain "trickle down economics" philosophy that has already devastated the middle class for decades and created the financial meltdown that we are in today.

Take even more money from the "Joe Sixpack" poor and middle class, and give it to the rich, who will continue to move that capital offshore, to places like India and China - or simply spend it on more yachts and million-dollar vacation homes, to add to all those they already own.

A vote for McCain is a vote for more of the same.

[nativewoman]

Posted by OneAmerican7 at 03:23 PM : Oct 13, 2008

Oppressive government?

Like arresting peaceful war-protesters at an RNC convention? The arrests included two women in their 70''s, one a 78 year old nun.

Like giving immunity to communications companies who participated in warrant-less wiretapping?

Like the DOD listing the Quakers as a terrorist organization?

High taxes?? Gotta finance Bush''s perpetual war and bailouts somehow, don''t we? Funny how the free market is touted by the GOP as the way to salvation. Except when it fails. Then the government steps in with a bailout essentially rewarding those who consistently make bad financial decisions affecting millions of people and then go off to a spa retreat.

An agenda devoted to the destruction of religion and the killing of unborn babies?

Please...turn the shrill hyperbole down a notch, shall we?

[mswolfestock]

OneAmerican7 -

What makes you think I''m a liberal, just because I can''t stand the idea that McShame is trying to portray himself as something he is not. He''s a liar, and he''s disrespecting all of the REAL heroes who will never flaunt their past glories for future rewards.

I''m a military veteran myself - THAT is why I cannot stand McShame''s self-glorification. HE SIMPLY DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE CALLED A HERO BECAUSE HE IS NOT.

[mswolfestock]

MC-SHAME IS NOT A HERO. I SAY AGAIN, HE IS NOT A HERO.

Read this link for the REAL 411 on a truly pathetic creature masquerading as a hero. It is a slap in the face of all the REAL heroes who would never chase after glory for its own sake.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain

[wogerwabbit]

The McCain of old had charecter... now he''s just an empty shell.