Leaders of America's left fall to flaws
James Seaman
Daily Utah Chronicle
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah
If you enter the J. Willard Marriott Library through the east doors on the third level and immediately proceed up the stairs to your left, you will see a statue of Icarus. He is a creature from Greek mythology who flew too high — his wings were held together by wax and, upon soaring dangerously close to the sun, the wax melted and Icarus tumbled to the Earth.
The other day I paid Icarus a visit. After hearing the news of Rev. Jesse Jackson's affair with former staffer Karin Stanford, I felt the image of this figure, frozen in his fall from grace, was particularly poignant.
There are myriad angles to this story, all of them heartbreaking. Jackson betrayed his wife of 38 years. For Jackie Jackson, one wonders how many other affairs her husband has had. The two are still married, but the level of anguish or rage that festers deep inside is something only she knows.
Inevitably, some will choose to portray the continuing marriage as merely a public and political face saving arrangement, as many have said of the Clintons. Again, only the Jacksons can know the true meaning of their marriage.
Love is extremely hard to come by, so much so that some never find it. But for those who sincerely love each other, only they can know the vitality or vacancy of their bond.
For the five Jackson children, there must also exist a tremendous contradiction of feelings and conflict of emotions, all aggravated by an unsatisfying search for elusive answers.
Of course, Jesse Jackson now has six children. This issue of how his 20-month-old daughter, born out of wedlock, will come to know her father is as pressing as the question of how her mother will deal with this firestorm.
Just as disconcerting as the dynamics of family are those of faith — Jackson is a reverend and has a flock of followers. Each must reconcile in his or her own way the discrepancy between Jackson's words and his actions.
While Jackson's crisis represents an assortment of personal issues, it is also tragic for what it means in a more general scope. These events are painful in the eyes of the people Jackson speaks for. Young African-American males in particular have too few role models, and Jackson was someone to be looked up to. Jackson operates on the front lines of the civil rights struggle in this country. As sure as you see him preaching, you also see him marching, standing in picket lines and even being arrested.
The struggles Jackson represents, the stories he speaks on behalf of, are things the current stock of powerholders will probably never understand. And when leaders like Jackson fall, sometimes there just isn't anyone left to pick up the pieces.
Beyond the civil rights struggle, Jackson's fall is significant in terms of what it may do to the left in general.
It is no secret that Jesse Jackson has plenty of enemies. And while I would hope that even Jackson's strongest opponents would feel compassion for the human side of these events, I am certain some conservatives are overjoyed. People like Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy probably feel vindicated, and I shudder to imagine the vitriolic rants spewing from their mouths in regard to Jackson's current situation.
Coming on the heels of Bill Clinton's self-destructive behavior, the political left did not need another shot between the eyes. For some reason, it seems liberal leaders are destined to be tragic figures, blessed with amazing skill and intellect, and yet cursed with some tragic flaw that causes them to betray the trust of their believers.
Contrast Clinton with conservative leaders like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. No sane person would place the latter two on the intellectual level of the former. Yet Reagan always kept things simple, surrounding himself with shrewd and able operatives.
Bush is doing the same by selecting a Cabinet of demigods and keeping his messages to the American people in the form of the lowest common denominator. Conservatives succeed by projecting a paternalistic moral leadership that, although fabricated, feels real to the American people.
While the left may have better ideas, its leaders squander opportunities amidst personal intrigue. Just as Clinton rendered himself a lame duck, Jackson has also likely forfeited his political clout. And thus, a generation of liberal leaders is lost in a time when we most need them.
The recent conservative trend in this country has been in play since 1968 and is shifting the entire paradigm to the right. Too often the questions have changed from "How much aid should the government provide?" to "Should the government provide aid at all?"
The rise of this conservative era was ignited in part by the fall of another tragic liberal leader, Lyndon Johnson. Unlike many Republican presidents, Johnson tried to do too much, heaping the Great Society, the Vietnam War and the weight of the world upon his own shoulders.
The impact of Johnson's crash to the ground is still being felt in the ranks of the left.
Beyond Johnson, there were no able torchbearers. With the murder of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King within five years of each other, there was simply no one remaining to lead the left. In contrast, the current generation of liberal leaders seems to be killing itself off with its own stupidity.
So far, the story of Icarus hasn't meant enough to those who lead the way for the political left. Perhaps the next generation of liberal leaders will learn from Jackson's mistakes.
If not, we are doomed to repeat this pattern of fallen angels and risen devils.
This column first appeared in the University of Utah daily newspaper, the Daily Utah Chronicle, on Jan. 29, 2001 and is reprinted here courtesy of U-WIRE.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Tuesday, January 30, 2001
