Cheerleaders don’t worry about strategy

By Patricia Hunt
Published: September 19, 2008

Yesterday in class a student asked me what I thought about the upcoming election. I am not in the business of endorsing candidates as a part of my teaching job. I want students to think for themselves, but thinking involves more than expressing opinions.  I tried to answer without making the student feel I was dodging the question.  What might be useful?
I finally said that students should analyze how each candidate sees the world and then decide which way of seeing the world has more promise, seems more accurate. Differences in policy can come from different understandings of how the world works. Our political dialogue is drowning in the trivial, awash in bumper sticker phrases, and reminds me of slogans cheerleaders yell at football games. “Push ’em back, push ’em back, way back.” Fans jump to their feet, screaming out the cheer in unison. The coaches worry about strategy and the fine points of the game, but cheerleading is about emotional support. Mostly our campaigns are cheerleading with the news media functioning as the scoreboard where we can look up and see how our team is doing and how much time is left on the clock.
A few people want to know about the candidates’ positions on health care, foreign policy, education, taxes, global warming, free trade and the economy. Those positions rest upon a foundation of basic understandings about how the world works. What is the world view of the candidates?
Occasionally questions are asked that try to get at the foundation. At the Saddleback Church, both candidates were asked what we must do about evil. McCain was given high marks for having the shortest answer. Obama’s was longer and more complex, but both candidates were eyeing the audience when they answered the question. In campaigns you have to tease out for yourself what candidates think based on how they have responded to the problems government has to address. You can’t depend on what they say.
One question I want to know is what do the candidates have faith in? I am not talking about God; I am talking about what resources they rely on to solve problems. McCain comes from a military background and tends to see military power as the resource he has the most faith in. If you see the military as your most reliable resource, then you believe that people and nations are most likely to do what you want them to do when they are afraid of you. The threat of violence used against them is the most useful tool in your toolbox. A case can be made for that point of view. A case can be made against it. World War II and Hitler are a good historical case for it. The inability of the British to hold on to their empire despite their military resources would argue against it. Just saying you must confront evil says nothing. How would you confront evil?
When leaders have pushed aside the rule of law and the Constitution, it could be because they believe that force, violence, is more powerful than any other resource they have to accomplish their goals, and the ends justify the means. 
Obama has been an attorney and community organizer. He thinks there is power in bringing people together for a common purpose and organizing the way they think and what they do to bring about change. If you see organizing and harnessing the power of people collectively as an important resource, then you believe that it is possible and effective to rely on “soft power” to bring about desired results. The military option would not be his first choice. A case can be made for it: the civil rights movement in the United States, even the Constitution of the United States which assumes that people can govern themselves without a king. Hitler could be an argument against it.
As I look at candidates, I want to strip away the fog of the campaign and find out what they really believe about the way the world works because they will act on those beliefs.  Chanting cheers from the stands may be okay for spectators at football games, but citizens of a democracy are supposed to be on the coaching staff, not the cheering squad. 
Patricia Hunt, of Staunton, is a chaplain at Mary Baldwin College.