He was referring to Alan B. Parker, who became his adversary in the 1904 presidential election, and I quote the passage from the book in full because it seems to have something to do with how we react to candidates today and because I have liked colorless politicians (and judges) — perhaps too much:
Alton Brooks Parker, Chief Justice of the New York Court of Appeals, was gray enough to defeat the new science of autochrome photography. Drably decent, colorlessly correct at fifty-two, Parker dressed by habit in a gray cutaway coat and gray cutaway trousers. He lived in a gray house overlooking the gray waters of the Hudson, and was the author of many gray legal opinions, so carefully worded that neither plaintiffs nor defendants knew what he really felt on any given issue. Even the heart of Alton B. Parker was a gray area.
Roosevelt had foreseen the judge’s candidacy for years. He knew Parker from gubernatorial days, and feared him precisely because he was colorless. "The neutral-tinted individual is very apt to win against the man of pronounced views and active life."
Personally, he liked Parker very much. The judge was attractive on close acquaintance. Big and solid as an upstate lumberman, he exuded healthy, untroubled self-confidence. No furrow of doubt marred the smooth brow; his jaw was forceful; and his mustache (graying, but still tinged with auburn) curved easily and often into a thick-lipped grin. If his conversation was bland, tending toward boring, that was no novelty in a politician—and Parker was a politician, for all his judicial demeanor....
I'm giving this post my "I'm for Boring" tag, which doesn't mean that I am always for boring, just that I'm keeping track of my preference for boring politicians. I don't want life itself to be boring, but I have a tendency to presume that boring politicians leave more room for the rest of humanity to shine. But that's not necessarily true. You keep your eye on the non-boring politician. Who knows what the boring politician will do?
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Adages that crossed my mind while writing this post:
1. "One may smile and smile and be a villain" (said Hamlet).
2. "It's the quiet ones you've gotta watch for" (original source unknown, but memorably mocked by George Carlin).
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22 comments:
perhaps too much
Not much “perhaps” about it.
People worry too much about political personality. If you want humanity to shine, to advance, focus on policy not people…
People will never learn that. Policy is too boring
Give me a psyho with good policies all day…
You're not going to get much boring competency from a generation that dreams of being influencers.
There was a time when upper class persons thought that one should be mentioned in public media only upon birth, marriage and death, preferably in the Times only. Any more public notice and it was likely one had done something terribly wrong.
That is Obama
He was a grey canvas, voters painted their own agenda on, and believed Obama agreed with them.
But Obama is Eddie Haskle, lying and telling you what you want, with a smile and a compliment.
But behind your back he accuses you of clinging to your guns and Bible. Ironic yes? Smearing your political foes of exercising enumerated rights . . . rights that Obama truly sees as deplorable
What politician could be more boring than "Silent" Calvin Coolidge, who TR's daughter Alice famously described as looking as if he had been "weaned on a pickle?"
Well, I had to look up "cutaway trousers," but it didn't do me any good in the time I allotted to the task; apparently(?) they're just the trousers you wear with a cutaway jacket. Nothing I saw mentioned any special characteristic of them. But I did end up discovering adaptive trousers that can be put on a wheelchair-bound person, which is good, and of course the other use of "cutaway" for women's clothes with cutouts and so forth.
Goes to show TR didn't follow his own observation, unless ironically.
"What politician could be more boring than "Silent" Calvin Coolidge, who TR's daughter Alice famously described as looking as if he had been "weaned on a pickle?""
I highlighted a passage from "Theodore Rex" about Alice:
"Something flickered at her wrist. A bright green snake twined round her fingers and wriggled up the front of her dress. Roosevelt paid no attention. He was more interested in checking whom Governor Odell was talking to, on a secluded bench in the garden. Alice was not the only one of his children to wear reptiles next to the skin. She was, however, the only one who resented him—though loving him with equal violence. Her attitude toward herself was equally confused. “I feel that I want something, I don’t know what.'"
"One may smile and smile and be a villain" (said Hamlet).
"The Devil talks pretty." - Johnnie Mae Hubert (My First Foster Mother)
What Alice really craved was the hot monkey love of Alton B. Parker. You know it, and I know it!
I just finished reading a bio of the later years of the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon had more charisma. It's called the Napoleonic Age not the Wellington Era. What Napoleon had going for him was that all the poets and pundits of his age were into him and eager to amplify his glory. Compare Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, originally written to celebrate Napoleon versus Opus 91 which Beethoven wrote to celebrate Wellington. Opus 91 is widely regarded as his worst work.....Charisma is not in the eye of the beholder but in the eye of the artist, the words of the poet, and the melodies of the composer.....In our own time, ponder the difference between Kennedy and Eisenhower. Eisenhower was a man of solid accomplishments, stolid appearance, and dull words. Leonard Bernstein never felt moved to write a symphony in his honor and Norman Mailer would never write thousands of gushing words about Eisenhower's sagacity....In a choice between Achilles and Hector, the leading men always chose the part of Achilles. For the record, McKinley was a far greater war hero than Roosevelt but who nowadays knows this or even recognizes the name of McKinley..
"My fellow Americans..." politicians are an anachronism.
Unfortunately, the Republican party is still filled with them...
People are idiots and easily fooled. No matter how radical and anti-American his policies, Joe biden is "good ol Joe". And no matter what they did, Bill Clinton was the likable Goober from Hope Arkansas, Obama the "cool laid back" black guy.
THe Republicans have a history of giving power to bland "nice Guys" who aren't really nice and are capable of warmongering and leftwing poliices. Romney, Bush I, Gerald Ford come instantly to mind. Or just bland grey personaliites like mitch mcconnell or Paul Ryan (a CPA personality) who control things, and sabatoge others from behind the curtain.
Probably the most successful "neutral" personality was Stalin aka "Uncle Joe". He was the behind the scenes guy during the Revolution, then worked his way up to be to the Politburo. Overshadowed by Trotsky, Kamanez, and ziniov (all sic). Always posing as the "reasonable guy in the middle". First, ally with K and Z to get rid of Trotsky. Then ally with the "Right" to get rid of K&Z. Then ally with stalinists to get rid of the "Right".
During the Politburo struggle sessions Stalin always was the "reasonable one" acting like he had an open mind, when in fact he was the most radical and had already decided the persons guilt.
"What politician could be more boring than "Silent" Calvin Coolidge
There's this lady who said to him, "I'll bet I can get you to say more than two words!"
Silent Cal: "You lose."
Today, "boring" may be a cover for lying. When you as a politician today to defend open borders, high gas prices, inflation, etc., a boring answer will be a lie.
Here are some examples: The immigrants just want better lives for their families; Climate Change; There is no inflation.
That came from dorothy thompson known commhnist apologist
And then there are people who have reached a point in their lives where a bland, quiet, existence is quite welcome after all of the drama.
I agree boring is best, but boring doesn't sell news. Of presidents in my lifetime, I'd say George HW Bush was the most boring. Joe Biden is boring, so he's got that going for him.
"The neutral-tinted individual is very apt to win against the man of pronounced views and active life."
This is a great dissertation tip for the up and coming CRT PhD student.
Having an American President claim that the pale "neutral- tinted" white man is going to win over the vibrant man of street views and active dissing around makes it pre-ordained that the (hu)-man of color was led in chains aboard the "cattle car" of hatred to destinations that, to the arrival at which, was re-purposed by the Jewish community to invent the mythos of the presumed holocaust.
There, that is half of the abstract! and in 15 seconds.
Wilbur's blue-collar father used to observe "The easiest for a man to get re-elected to the Senate is to keep his name out of the newspapers."
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If all of our Presidents since Calvin Collidge had been half as sagacious as him, this nation would be in much better shape.
Granted, the quiet ones may bear watching, I'm still with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:
"Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much.
Such men are dangerous."
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