Bernie, Hillary, Logic, and Emotion - Staying w/Conflict - Election Edition 2016

Bernie, Hillary, Logic, and Emotion

 by Bernie (not that one) Mayer[1]:

Hillary may be logical, but where is the passion? 

Bernie takes it to the establishment, and we may really like the way he “tells it like it is”, but his plans and promises are unrealistic. 

That just about sums up the majority of critiques of both candidates and their campaigns. Well maybe not quite, but this is at the heart of a lot of what has been written about the Democratic side of this primary season.

Hillary, we are told, offers a dispassionate, detailed, analytical and incremental approach to change, but not an inspiring one.  Many go further to accuse her of being too “calculating” and offer as evidence the many positions she has taken over time that seem to have changed as the political climate has changed:  the Iraq War, gay marriage, or the Trans Pacific Partnership, to name a few.   

This raises two questions—what is wrong about being analytical, dispassionate and flexible?  And isn’t “calculating” a pretty gendered way of labeling a necessary element of the political process? 

After all, thinking things through in terms of the political consequences and acting accordingly is something politicians must do.  Lincoln had to calculate when he could sign the Emancipation Proclamation and how far it should go. And FDR had to make a political decision about how overtly he could side with the British and commit to defeating the Nazis - before Pearl Harbor gave him his smoking gun?   

I don’t think the meaningful question is whether Hillary is too “calculating.”  That really is a gendered stereotype.  The real concern is whether she has a firm commitment to a set of values and principles that are the guiding forces behind her political calculations.  We want to know that our leaders decision making, their “calculating” if you like, is firmly grounded in a set of values and guided by a clear moral compass. 

But we also want them to be effective.  

...So - we seem to have a struggle between logic and emotion, principle and compromise, realism and optimism.  Bernie stands on principle, is optimistic about the possibility of fundamental change, and stirs his followers’ passions. Hillary is logical, understands the necessity of compromise, and above all is a realist. 

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