The benevolent leader

In the 1950s Yale political science professor Fred Greenstein studied New Haven school children to learn about their political attitudes.  He found that very young students often confused the President with God.  The President was, in their eyes, superhuman.  The article detailing the findings was titled “The Benevolent Leader.”

In 1959 I was a delegate to the national 4-H conference in Washington, D.C.  I was 16.  We all went down to the White House lawn and President Eisenhower came out to talk to us.  I didn’t like Eisenhower very much.  I was angry that the U.S. did nothing to help Hungary in ’56, and my mom worked very hard for Stevenson in both 1952 and 1956.  Nonetheless, when Eisenhower came out of the White House, I was in awe.

While I didn’t care for Ike, I positively loathed Richard Nixon.  However, when my daughter came home from her Oakland first grade class talking about “pig Nixon,” I explained that Nixon was President of the United States, and we should never call him pig.

Now I hear that there is a local pumpkin farm with a scarecrow with a Biden face.  Kids are invited to throw things at him.  There’s a yard sign on 209 that says “Fuck Biden.”  Cursing at Biden seems to be routine.  Even members of Congress yell at him during the State of the Union message.   How far we have fallen.