Choosing Our King - Powerful Symbols in Presidential Politics

337 Pages·1974·10.814 MB·English

by  Michael Novak

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- EVERYF OURY EARS,
AMERICAENLSE CAT KING
Not simply a King, but a High Priest and
Prophet. Our president personifies causes,
institutions, administrative processes. He
symbolizes our national ideals and goals. We
react with passion to what he represents.
Our personal feelings are affected by our
perceptions of him.
Michael Novak chooses the election of an
American president as the means to explode
the symbols of our national life and politics,
exposing many as fraudulent perceptions of
American realities. Brilliantly, with damning
clarity, he shows us that the American pres­
ident mirrors the people that elect him. For
the people seek and choose a man with
whom they can identify-as they are and as
they want to be.
In the election of 1972, as in few presidential
elections before it, basic symbols were in
open conflict. With razor-sharp insight,
Michael Novak interprets the campaigns of
the major candidates, revealing the manner
in which Richard Nixon became the primary
incarnation of the nation's self-understand­
ing. For Richard Nixon understood better
than the others the power of certain symbols
over the American electorate.
Michael Novak builds throughout his book
to a radical plan for the reformation of the
presidency. The president's power over
"reality" must be diminished, he says. Novak
envi ages a mature, realistic American
Dream -a dream which would bring our
national symbols into closer harmony with
the moral reality of life as we live it and
liberate the energies of all our people.
Other Books by MICHAENLo AKv
A NEW GENERATION
THE OPEN CHURCH
BELIEF AND UNBELIEF
A TIME TO BUILD
A THEOLOGY FOR RADICAL POLITICS
THE EXPERIENCE OF NOTHINGNESS
ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN, FLIGHT OF THE DOVE
ALL THE CATHOLIC PEOPLE
THE RISE OF THE UNMELTA BLE ETHNICS
A BOOK OF ELEMENTS
(wiKatrhe La11u b-Novak)
Fiction:
THE TIBER WAS SILVER
NAKED I LEAVE
CHOOSING
OUR
KING
CHOOSING
OURK ING
POWERFUL SYMBOLS
IN PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS
MICHANEOLV AK
MACMILLPAUNB LISHCION.IG,N C.
New York
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Novak, Michael.
Choosing our king.
I. Presidents--United States--Election-1972.
2. Presidents--United States. 3. Symbolism.
4. National characteristics, American. I. Title.
JK526 1972.N68 353.03'2 73-11835
ISBN 0-02-590720-4
Copyright © 1974 by Michael Novak
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the Publisher.
Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.
866 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022
Collier-Macmillan Canada Lt<!.
FIRST PRINTING 1974
Printed in the United States of America
For journalists and politicians
OF THE
congressional campaign of 1970
AND THE
presidential campaign of 1972
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author is grateful to several publishers for permission to quote from
the following works:
James David Barber, The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance
in the White House, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ., 1972.
Robert N. Bellah, "Civil Religion in America" which first appeared in
Daedalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston,
Winter 1967, Religion in America.
H. L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New
York, 1949.
Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma, Vol. I, Harper & Row, New
York, 1962.
Ray Price, memorandum of November 28, 1967. Subject: "Recommenda­
tions for General Strategy from Now through Wisconsin."
Woodrow Wilson, Constitutional Government in the United States, Co­
lumbia University Press, New York, 1908.
Bob Dylan, "The Times They Are A-Changin'," © 1963 M. Witmark &
Sons. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Warner Bros. Music.
John Lennon, "Imagine," © 1971 Northern Songs Ltd. All rights for the
United States of America, Canada, Mexico and The Philippines controlled
by Maclen Music, Inc. c/o ATV Music Group. All rights reserved. Used
by permission. International copyright secured.
Peter Yarrow, "Weave Me the Sunshine," © 1972 Mary Beth Music, 7S
East 55th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022. All rights reserved. Used by
permission.
CONTENTS
Preface: THE Goo-KING
PART ONE
PRIESTP,R OPHKINEGT ,
I. Symbolic Realism 3
What Are Symbols? 6
2.
3.W ho Are We? 12
4.Un seen Power 15
5. Egalitarian and King 19
6.Fi ve Elements of Symbolic Power 29
7. Making the Most of Improbable Talents 32
8. A Professional's Memo 41
9.Th e Liturgy of Leadership 48
PART TWO
MORALISM AND MORALIT
IO. Being Moral and Being Practical 57
I I.T he Constituency of Conscience 63
12. That Word "Moral" 69
13V.ie tnam: More Moral Than Thou? 74
14T.h e Rise and Fall of Liberal Mora/ism 87
15B.ey ond Niebuhr: Symbolic Realism 93
PART THREE
THE CIVIL RELIGIONS OF AMERICA
16. The Nation with the Soul of a Church
105
17T.h e Innocence Lingers On III
18T.h e Civil Religions
123
I 9.Fi ve Protestant Civil Religions 131
20. High-Church America 137
21. The Second Great Tradition 147
PART FOUR
SYMBOLS OF 1972
163
22. Traditional Symbols
23N.e w Hampshire Snows 166