It appears that the President of the United States will also forgo the proceedings in the Rotunda on Saturday in favor of staying at his ranch for another day.
Lest anyone think my displeasure is reserved exclusively for the Democratic LEADERSHIP (Note: The Republicans on the junket are not a part of the leadership in the Senate. Those in the comments from my last post who have demonstrated their towering ignorance by not being able to tell the difference between the Majority Leader of the Senate passing on this event and two relatively unknown GOP members skipping out might want to deepen their thinking faculties a bit.) anything I said about Reid above goes double for Bush.
Look, friends. Hearken to me.
A nation is an organism, a life form. And what animates this life form, what gives it the power to unite our people – so diverse, so different – are its traditions, myths and legends; in other words, the symbolic over the substantiative. The Constitution does a fine job in defining the powers of government. But its real power is in its iconic symbolism in which we have bound up all the hopes and dreams of our citizenry for a better life.
The United States is a very young country by any standard. We are so young, we really have no “myths” or “legends” per se. That’s because even our greatest mythic heroes like Daniel Boone and Davey Crockett left a written record behind along with friends and acquaintance who were able to tell biographers and historians what those two larger than life characters were all about. A “legend” is hardly legendary if we know that the myths surrounding the legend are untrue. And yet we continue to try and conjure up symbolic representations of our mythic heroes because it is through them that we like to see ourselves reflected in our national mirror.
And tied up in these efforts to create legends has been the dominant truth about American public life since George Washington; the presidency as a symbol of nationhood. We have no king, no royal family. Our continuity is the result of civil compact among all of us that the office of the presidency belongs to no man, no party; that it is the one aspect of public life in which we invest enormous power and place enormous trust in the occupant not to abuse that power. Hence, the presidency as a symbolic representation of us, the citizens of the United States imbues the occupant of that office with the status of civic god – especially after he is safely retired and unable to do any damage to our liberties.
I think Bush should be widely criticized for not attending every event related to the Ford funeral rites. The symbolic life of the nation demands that he attend and participate. I believe he and Reid’s failure to take part in the ceremonial, the tradition of laying to rest a former president and former Commander in Chief lessens the hold that office has on our emotional bonds with America – what Lincoln referred to as the “mystic chords of memory” – that allow us to rise above that which separates us and unite in common cause to remember a dead icon.
I fully expect the lefty commenters to belittle this rationalization. So be it. It is probably why in 50 years, long after I’m dust thank god, the way citizens feel about the United States will be unrecognizable to my generation.
4:45 am
[...] Original post by Rick Moran and software by Elliott Back [...]
6:53 am
Ditto. There are few things in life that one must show up for, but this is one of them.
9:45 am
The Trouble With Harry… and George Too:
Not only Harry Reid will forgo Gerald Ford’s state funeral in the Rotunda tomorrow night; President Bush won’t attend either, and Rick Moran is unhappy about it: “Anything I said about Reid above goes double for Bush.” (Right Wing Nut…
10:39 am
Rick,
If it is truly a Tradition, Bush will be there. Bush does everything for posterity.
10:42 am
The Repubs and the Dems are truly in a race to the bottom.
12:36 pm
Every time I find myself longing to support President Bush and his policies, he absolutely stuns me with his blunt lack of judgment. Reid is just being himself.
1:20 pm
Bush will be attending the services on Tuesday at the National Cathedral and will also speak at the service. Truly appropriate and much different then what Reid is doing. Try getting all the facts before comparing Bush to Reid
1:24 pm
Thank for calling out President Bush, as you did Harry Reid. I agree that the offices they hold require their presence at the Ford funeral activities.
Your analysis of the national organism is an interesting one, and points to one of the major sticking points between conservatives and liberals. The notion that tradition is vital to maintaining the county’s (or any other organization) identity and continuity is a core conservative idea. It plays itself out in such areas as strict constructionist approaches to the Constitution, support for flag burning penalties, opposition to expanding marriage rights to gays, and a myriad of other efforts to protect the status quo.
Liberals tend to see the living organism of our nation as one that needs to change over time in response to changing politics, economics, ideas of morality and their self-defined notions of fairness. Liberals tend to pay less attention to tradition than do conservatives because they are focused on change.
Interestingly enough, systems theory teaches us that both ideas must be in place to insure the future success of any social organization, from the family to the nation. We must maintain enough continuity and tradition to keep our basic identity as an organization. Too much change will cause the organization to lose its identity and even purpose.
At the same time, failure to change in response to the times, conditions, etc. will also destroy an organization. Change must happen or the organization becomes irrelevant and unnecessary for current conditions, a certain death knell. So a balance of change and stability are needed to keep the United States moving forward. Liberals represent the change necessities of the country and conservatives represent the stability needs of the country (yes, these are generalities, exceptions can be found on either side). Yes, incredibly stupid, venal people exist on both sides of the equation, but they do not negate the effective, dedicated people that make up the majority of liberals and conservatives. Perhaps it is time to recognize that both conservatives and liberals are necessary for our nation to succeed and to stop dehumanizing each other. Argue, yes. Demonize, no. Each represents forces necessary to the existence of our nation.
8:26 am
The U.S. is NOT a young country.
It is the oldest country in the world as measured the only way that makes sense: organic existence under a single set of defining documents and institutions.
The U.S. Constitution and the unfortunate U.S. bureaucracies are the longest living of any country in the world. (U.K. Constitution late 19th Century, France is on its 6th Republic, while we’re on our first, and the Swiss Canton’s have come and gone every so often with their redefinitions).
Learn about your country before you diss it to the Eurotrash.
9:27 am
Yes, we are a “young country” in the sense that we have no myths and legends more than a couple of hundred years old while every nation in Europe not to mention many nations in Asia can trace their culture and heritage back more than 1,000 years – sometimes more than 2,000.
And as far as “organic existence under a single set of defining documents and institutions” being the “only” way to define a nation, I daresay you’d get an earful of laughter from any Chinese scholar on the planet. Your criteria is arbitrary and irrelevant anyway. Germany hasn’t been a “nation” under your definition until the 20th century. How about common language? Culture? A shared set of values and beliefs?
By any other measuring stick – except the one that you so capriciously used – America is in fact a very young country.
So stop lecturing and get a grip. The rest of the world recognizes the fact that America is a young country. But I guess that’s not good enough for you. Maybe you should write a book – you having such superior knowledge of history and all…
10:03 pm
“John Presley Said:
12:36 pm
Every time I find myself longing to support President Bush and his policies, he absolutely stuns me with his blunt lack of judgment. Reid is just being himself.”
Why is it that Bush is merely showing bad judgement while Reid is just being himself?
Do you have any evidence that Bush is not just being himself?