Though for me as a young Hispanic in 1969 it was easier to identify with the Wild Bunch’s Angel, I rooted for the aging anti-heroes Pike, Dutch, Lyle, and the others whatever their physical appearance. Unfortunately, for the current batch of conservatives the problem is that we are stuck on the physical appearance of John Wayne and Ronald Reagan as our hero archetype. Look at the last Republican candidate for President Mitt Romney: all classic white guy good looks, tall physical stature, and nice hair but zero actual courage to ever consider political self-sacrifice to save the Nation. Romney was a million miles away from being a true Presidential hero like Abraham Lincoln. And, Dr. Hanson, how in the world could you consider Chris Christie as a possible Presidential American hero? Isn’t Christie the guy who recently was more interested in sucking on the National teat and photo-opting with Mr. President-willing-to-sacrifice-the-entire-U.S.-for-his-infamous-political-reign than to in any way begin to be a hero that helped to save the U.S. from its self-destruction? Christie and the President photographed in embrace looked more like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza or Laurel and Hardy than heroes. Why, Dr. Hanson, can’t you see who are prime candidates to fit your characteristics of the tragic heroes the U.S. desperately needs? You write: “Tragic heroes possess the requisite primeval physical and mental assets to welcome the challenge at hand, and they exude a certain sort of self-destructiveness — or is it self-sacrifice? — that puts the welfare of the people they’re protecting above their own.” The tragic hero “doesn’t much care whether he lives, but he very much cares that the job is finished.” “They are out of place as saviors. Yet these defiant ones apparently gain a sense of Schadenfreude at the fact that their benefactors, the civilized Ransom Stoddards, in extremis need the very skills that they profess should be superfluous.” “Lincoln excelled as a tragic hero — to the point of his strange premonitions about his early and violent death.” “Yet in those rare times of existential crisis, civil or global, the tragic hero is our only salvation.” “Could there be a tragic hero in the 21st century? Might a candidate reform the tax code, balance the budget, recalibrate entitlements, return the U.S. to a meritocratic and self-reliant society, and understand that he had to be hated for doing what might save us?” Dr. Hanson, are you blinded by the John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Mitt Romney mystic? We especially don’t need a Marco Rubio or a John McCain, wannabe-heroes at our expense! Isn’t it obvious that the U.S. after it’s gone will look back and realize that the heroes we had and needed were the likes of Drs. Ron and Rand Paul? We don’t need fictional heroes who necessarily only look good on a screen; we need intelligent, principled, and courageous real heroes. So, for me, my choice for Presidential hero is Dr. Rand Paul. Dr. Rand Paul for President
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 18:53:49 +0000
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