Chalk it up to being a quintessential outsider as a child, or a centerless rabble-rouser (read: asshole) as an adult – your pick, or list a third choice – I refuse to think tribal when it comes to politics. I will occasionally call even the guy I voted for on his crap. I tend to relent from speaking up too often, because more often than not I'm accused of being different and stubborn for its own sake, and will in some cases risk being horrendously wrong for the sole sake of being different. That tends to piss people off.
In this case, I hope to intentionally piss you off.
I gave myself a rather simple-sounding assignment recently: to go online and find a photograph of a U.S. President, of any party, either hugging or accepting a hug from someone he isn't politically obligated to; an electoral non-entity according to his party's agenda – and doing so with what at least appears to be genuine emotion.
Why did I do this? A whimsical question popped into my head, and it made me curious.
What I discovered may surprise you, and in a few cases it will definitely anger you that I would show "that guy" in the same heroic light as your Chosen One.
As my search term, I merely typed "President (insert sir-name) Hugs". I performed a separate – non-partisan – search of every POTUS who has held office since the year of my birth, and a few prior.
The list of those I could NOT technically find, will just as harshly rub you raw.
Roosevelt and Truman were apparently not huggers. Neither was Eisenhower. One may stumble upon plenty of pics of them shaking hands with cronies or foreign dignitaries – or even squeezing family members – but those shots wouldn't qualify. Read my criteria above, one more time.
President John F. Kennedy shook many hands, but only hugged his children. Lyndon Johnson never hugged on camera.
Nixon hugged, but Ford wouldn't.
Carter was not exactly a hug-junkie.
Hugging wasn't presidential enough for Reagan, or apparently Bush Sr.
Clinton must receive an asterisk (*) on this list, because though his Presidential Hugshots are numerous, finding one that didn't look like he was copping a feel (with everyone it seems except his wife Hillary) was a bit more difficult than you'd probably like to imagine. He still made the list, though.
Dubya made the hug roster, as did Barrack.
What statement am I making with this? Do you perceive a statement? Stop before you mentally answer that.
Again, are you merely grousing that I'm showing someone you dislike in a favorable light? The real statement is whatever you feel when you look at who's shown here, and who isn't.
I'm only asking you to examine what I had to, in seeing these photos in the context of themselves as a group.
Myself.
"But Rob, you fool, our guy is a man of heartfelt connection and a sense of humanity... their guy is obviously putting on an act."
This blog post is really starting to drive you up a wall, isn't it. These photos, in no other context but their own... your whole body is itching to cuss a blue streak in my ear.
No, I'm not favoring, supporting, or endorsing anyone here. In fact, a least one of the guys pictured above is definitely not on my favorite people list. But all I'm doing is showing the photo – with no comment. My mind has printed every sarcastic caption that yours is, as you read.
The change you want begins in the mirror. Sometimes I've boo'ed or applauded merely out of knee-jerk partisanship. That is inherently unenlightened.
I don't know what this little piece of cyber-vaudeville means – I only know it is bound to get a rise out of someone. And maybe, if they can stand outside of themselves, see a higher truth than mere party loyalty. At some point, we'll have to cast that aside anyway if we want our country back.
All I have as a commentarial capstone are a couple of quotes from a semi-hugless Commander-in-Chief:
A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality.
– John F. Kennedy, "Profiles In Courage"
If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.
– John F. Kennedy, 1963 Speech at American University, Washington D.C.
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