tyroneweaver
Platinum Member
Op-ed: Why McMullin is a mirage in the Utah desert
I am bewitched with the rogue's company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged.
-Falstaff from Shakespeare's Henry V
Evan McMullin could easily be cast as a Shakespearean character in the current election, even if his role remains unclear. He wants to portray himself as a "new generation leader" intent upon washing away all the ills and immoralities from the current presidential race and delivering us to the promised land unscathed. Deliverance is certainly a message that Mormons find compelling.
With a promise of safety within the current political storm, many Mormons are seeking shelter in casting their votes for the nationally unknown Mormon candidate. Unfortunately, McMullin offers the same bewitchment that Falstaff found in Prince Hal so many centuries ago. Running a campaign devoid of any political substance, we are left with only our imagination to fill in the blanks. In nearly every ad or interview that McMullin has conducted he always begins with the trite phrase that "we need a new generation of leaders."
Psychologists refer to such broad generalizations as Barnum statements — statements so vague and all-encompassing that nearly everyone can endorse them. Such phrases have absolutely no substance.
If you look below the McMullin façade, you will not find much there — a poorly articulated work history, no leadership skills and no special competencies of any kind. Instability has characterized a "career" that has moved between the government, Wall Street and Washington politics. You might think that someone grandiose enough to run for president might have at least some leadership experience. Not so with McMullin. Apparently just calling yourself a leader is sufficient to persuade others that you can lead them.
Here's the problem: Real leaders must earn that title through trial, error and experience. It's almost certainly the case that if you call yourself a leader you're not a leader at all. Socrates understood that if you're wise you show your wisdom, you don't tell people how wise you are.
Prince Hal from Shakespeare's Henry IV made the now famous statement that "uneasy is the head that wears the crown." Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have discovered the meaning of this phrase during this election process in spades, each being mercilessly scrutinized. We want leaders who have been tested and endured. We want leaders with some depth who have experienced adversity and been bruised by life's ups and downs. McMullin appeared from nowhere and offers us no history, background or adversity from his past to overcome. He simply wants to "do the right thing." Why would we want to confer the crown so readily upon someone whom we know so little about? Someone who has never been tested?
Remember that it took Clinton 30 years of public service to put herself in the position to become president, and a similar number of years of business experience for Trump to emerge. Whatever your views of Clinton and Trump are, there can be no doubt they earned it. What reasonable human being thinks he can step in and run for the president in only three months time? Mitt Romney didn't. He said no to an emergency invitation to stop Trump. And Mitt Romney is the real deal — a man with integrity who earned it.
What do we really know about McMullin? His life seemingly exists in a vacuum. He has never been married and has no children. In a culture that values family above all else, should we ask whether a future leader who has not developed an intimate relationship by age 40 is suited to lead others?
McMullin unquestionably knows the power of Barnum statements. It's hard to argue with this strategy. By remaining amorphous in his pronouncements he allows voters — mainly Mormon voters — the ability to project their own views onto him. He becomes the blank slate that absorbs all of his voters' far-fetched fantasies about leadership, morality and justice. He has, in effect, positioned himself as the Mormon Everyman — bland, unimaginative, uninspired and non-threatening. Mormon voters will project everything they want to see onto McMullin because he represents nothing and threatens no one.
Just keep those Barnum statements coming. And keep telling us that our lives will be better and more hopeful if we latch onto a new generation of leaders. The fact is that McMullin is making Utahans looks like childish dreamers searching endlessly for the fountain of youth in the middle of the desert. Utah voters have been bewitched by his bland medicines. And don't forget P.T Barnum's colorful wisdom — "a sucker is born every minute" — as you vote because if you don't know who the sucker is and you're voting for McMullin you might just learn that it's you.
John Matthias, Ph.D., is a Princeton-educated psychologist who lives in Santa Clara.
I am bewitched with the rogue's company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged.
-Falstaff from Shakespeare's Henry V
Evan McMullin could easily be cast as a Shakespearean character in the current election, even if his role remains unclear. He wants to portray himself as a "new generation leader" intent upon washing away all the ills and immoralities from the current presidential race and delivering us to the promised land unscathed. Deliverance is certainly a message that Mormons find compelling.
With a promise of safety within the current political storm, many Mormons are seeking shelter in casting their votes for the nationally unknown Mormon candidate. Unfortunately, McMullin offers the same bewitchment that Falstaff found in Prince Hal so many centuries ago. Running a campaign devoid of any political substance, we are left with only our imagination to fill in the blanks. In nearly every ad or interview that McMullin has conducted he always begins with the trite phrase that "we need a new generation of leaders."
Psychologists refer to such broad generalizations as Barnum statements — statements so vague and all-encompassing that nearly everyone can endorse them. Such phrases have absolutely no substance.
If you look below the McMullin façade, you will not find much there — a poorly articulated work history, no leadership skills and no special competencies of any kind. Instability has characterized a "career" that has moved between the government, Wall Street and Washington politics. You might think that someone grandiose enough to run for president might have at least some leadership experience. Not so with McMullin. Apparently just calling yourself a leader is sufficient to persuade others that you can lead them.
Here's the problem: Real leaders must earn that title through trial, error and experience. It's almost certainly the case that if you call yourself a leader you're not a leader at all. Socrates understood that if you're wise you show your wisdom, you don't tell people how wise you are.
Prince Hal from Shakespeare's Henry IV made the now famous statement that "uneasy is the head that wears the crown." Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have discovered the meaning of this phrase during this election process in spades, each being mercilessly scrutinized. We want leaders who have been tested and endured. We want leaders with some depth who have experienced adversity and been bruised by life's ups and downs. McMullin appeared from nowhere and offers us no history, background or adversity from his past to overcome. He simply wants to "do the right thing." Why would we want to confer the crown so readily upon someone whom we know so little about? Someone who has never been tested?
Remember that it took Clinton 30 years of public service to put herself in the position to become president, and a similar number of years of business experience for Trump to emerge. Whatever your views of Clinton and Trump are, there can be no doubt they earned it. What reasonable human being thinks he can step in and run for the president in only three months time? Mitt Romney didn't. He said no to an emergency invitation to stop Trump. And Mitt Romney is the real deal — a man with integrity who earned it.
What do we really know about McMullin? His life seemingly exists in a vacuum. He has never been married and has no children. In a culture that values family above all else, should we ask whether a future leader who has not developed an intimate relationship by age 40 is suited to lead others?
McMullin unquestionably knows the power of Barnum statements. It's hard to argue with this strategy. By remaining amorphous in his pronouncements he allows voters — mainly Mormon voters — the ability to project their own views onto him. He becomes the blank slate that absorbs all of his voters' far-fetched fantasies about leadership, morality and justice. He has, in effect, positioned himself as the Mormon Everyman — bland, unimaginative, uninspired and non-threatening. Mormon voters will project everything they want to see onto McMullin because he represents nothing and threatens no one.
Just keep those Barnum statements coming. And keep telling us that our lives will be better and more hopeful if we latch onto a new generation of leaders. The fact is that McMullin is making Utahans looks like childish dreamers searching endlessly for the fountain of youth in the middle of the desert. Utah voters have been bewitched by his bland medicines. And don't forget P.T Barnum's colorful wisdom — "a sucker is born every minute" — as you vote because if you don't know who the sucker is and you're voting for McMullin you might just learn that it's you.
John Matthias, Ph.D., is a Princeton-educated psychologist who lives in Santa Clara.
