My father was a unique character. I never met a man who was more
set in his ways or more unwilling to change them, especially when
it came to his looks. His one ill-advised attempt at updating his
wardrobe — my mother’s really — was the purchase of an awful
Nehru jacket sometime in the late 1960s. It just didn’t fit him;
not in a sartorial manner, but because pandering to something so
trivial as current fashion would have undermined his air of
authority and diminished our trust in his rock-solid
dependability.
I’ve always felt that there is something comforting in a man who
disdains passing fads while I’ve never wholly trusted one who is a
slave to fashion. This must have run in my family, because my
youngest sister once said that Ronald Reagan — who, though a
well-tailored movie star, never altered his appearance with the
changing styles — always made her feel “safe.” Likewise, I
instinctively mistrust anyone who has been tagged with the puerile
sobriquet of “rock star”; a paean to cool and hipness that is truly
a symbol of all that is wrong in America.
I suppose there is something to be said for hipness when you’re
a teenager and peer pressure demands the need for such foolishness,
but when your bank account is overdrawn or the IRS comes a’knockin’
at your door, who do you want to handle it? Do you want a
bling-bedecked hipster or do you want a nerd with a pocket
protector full of pens and pencils? Or when the bogeyman sneaks up
on you in the middle of the night, is it a rock star you’d want to
protect you?
George W. Bush, with his dreary vacations in Crawford, Texas and
his penchant for being in bed by 10:00 PM, was the epitome of what
was once known as “square,” but even the most ardent lefties were
glad he was in charge during 9/11. It may have been the cool rock
star who gave the order to kill Osama bin Laden in flashy,
video-game style, but it was the slow, plodding and sometimes
painful ways of the dull Bush that laid the groundwork.
Since the culture-busting days of the '60s, our nation has been
schizophrenic in its choice between style and substance, starting
with the first paparazzi president, John F. Kennedy and his wife
Jackie; the first First Lady to assume the role of stylish
trendsetter. Although JFK was far more credentialed than the
current cool cat in the White House, many felt that his election
was the product of marketing his attractive family background and
his ruddy, New England good looks.
After JFK came the dreary career politician, Lyndon Johnson,
followed by Richard Nixon, a man so square that when he appeared on
Laugh-In during the 1968 presidential campaign, I’m pretty
sure he didn’t even know what “Sock it to me” meant. Next came the
enigmatic Jimmy Carter, with a personal style that was chock-full
of corn yet whose policies were the stuff that liberal dreams are
made of.
The two terms of Reagan brought to fruition a synthesis of
elegance and gravitas which had probably not been seen since George
Washington, and might never again grace the highest office of our
land. He naturally attracted the “beautiful people” of Hollywood,
yet they remained only on the fringes of his social life and had no
bearing on his presidency, unlike the next rock star, Bill Clinton,
the first “black president.”
Clinton, who followed on the heels of George H.W. Bush — so
unhip that his nickname was “Poppy” —was the first president to
use the cool and the hip to advance his career; famously using
Hollywood producers to make videos for his campaigns. While Reagan
actually was a movie star, Clinton merely played one in the White
House.
Then came George W. Bush who, as I said, would never be mistaken
for being hip, cool or in any way a rock star. Together with his
wife, a down-to-earth schoolteacher who nonetheless carried herself
with exceptional grace, he was about as exciting as white bread but
was fundamental to the nation’s need for emotional stability and
leadership at a time when this was desperately needed.
No, some men are just not destined to be “hip” nor is this
spurious attribute one that voters should seek in a man who is to
lead us out of our deadly moral and economic decline. We’ve danced
and slow-jammed around our problems enough for the last four years.
It is time for a square deal for America.
