Ed Schulz on his execrable MSNBC program The Ed Show has taken to excoriating John Boehner, the Republican House Majority Leader soon to become Speaker of The House of Representatives, for his propensity to cry, notably during discussions of The American Dream. Schulz blames Boehner and the Republicans for the country's problems and for "throwing working families under the bus" even going so far as to say his crying during a recent Barbara Walter's interview is a sign of a guilty conscience. Walter's co-host on The View like to infer that Boehner is just emotionally unstable. And of course liberal Democrats fall in line behind this rhetoric, and excuse it on the grounds that conservatives would be worse if Obama or Pelosi were to break down in tears. Some even point out how conservatives were cruelly derisive of Hillary Clinton when she broke down and cried following her loss in the Iowa caucus during her 2008 run for the Democratic nomination.
I would like to point out a major difference between Hillary and John Boehner which should be mind-numbingly obvious to any with the brains of Ray Bolger's Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz.
Boehner cried when his party, not just him, made their biggest electoral gains in several decades.
Hillary Clinton cried when she lost. When she lost her first caucus.
When that happened, Hillary Clinton lost the first important test of her candidacy during a primary season, prior to which she had been hailed for about two years as the all-but presumptive Democratic Party nominee for President in 2008. It was but the first of a series of long, hard fought primary season contests that she would lose, leading to her ultimate defeat and the corresponding ascension of Obama as Democratic nominee. Hillary had to know that her first defeat in Iowa was but a portent, an ominous foreshadowing of what promised to be a long, hard fought and bruising primary campaign season, one in which she was no longer assured of the victory she had come to feel was hers for merely the asking.
When it looked as though she might also fall to defeat in New Hampshire, it was too much for her. For a few brief seconds, she lost her composure, the steely, hard resolve for which she was noted, and she was overcome with a sense of emotional insecurity that actually revealed her to be more human than many might have suspected. Ironically, it actually helped her. She ended up winning the New Hampshire primary, and went on to score other victories. But in the end, she lost, as she feared she might that night two years ago when she broke down for just a few brief seconds, and lost her composure.
But her tears, despite her stated anxiety about those things she feared she would never accomplish, seem based on disappointment at the loss of the opportunity to extend the Clinton legacy of power and influence through yet a third presidential term.
Contrast this to John Boehner, whose tears were not tears of disappointment in the face of a crushing defeat, but instead were tears of gratitude and humility in the face of an overwhelming sense of responsibility entrusted by the American people not just in him, but in the party of which he is a leader. John Boehner came up the hard way, through hard work and dedication, working at menial labor jobs and rising from there to become a successful, even a wealthy businessman. He doesn't just trust and have faith in the American Dream. He has lived the American Dream. He has experienced it first hand, and knows what it can do for a person who puts enough of his blood, sweat, and tears into pursuing it. He also knows there is always the possibility of failure. He wants government to not interfere with it. Unfortunately, John Boehner knows that the government, thanks to a series of ill-advised policies, many implemented in some cases with the best of intentions, has for far too many people made the American Dream measurably harder to achieve. In some cases, it has outright crushed that dream.
John Boehner knows full well that he has the power to do one of two things. As House Majority Speaker, he can be a major influence towards restoring the American Dream to its former level of greater attainment by those with the potential to strive for success. Or, he can accede to policies that will continue to strangle that potential for greater and increased success for greater numbers of people. That has got to be an awesome responsibility, an awesome weight to hoist upon ones shoulders. He knows it is going to be hard. He knows it is going to be one set of long, hard battles after another, with some failures, and maybe few victories.
But you see, John Boehner will fight those battles to the end, and he will do it with all the strength he can muster. Because John Boehner, unlike Hillary Clinton, is not just fighting for his own sense of entitlement, of self=aggrandizement, for ever greater personal power and influence.
No, John Boehner is fighting for something greater, much greater than himself, or for that matter, much greater than the Republican or Democratic Parties.
He is fighting to keep the Dream alive, and he knows its life might well depend on what he does. Or maybe on what he doesn't do, as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
If he breaks down and cries from time to time from being overcome with the emotion inherent in such an awesome responsibility, I can not only forgive it, I can appreciate it.
At least I know he gives a damn.
