National Review: Kerry, Tears, and Masculinity

[DrFunkenstein]

Forget his announcement tour. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's most consequential public act recently might be that he openly wept. This should make him the undisputed heir to Bill Clinton, and establish that Kerry, despite his reputation for aloofness, "gets it"--"it" being the modern American imperative to mist up at the slightest instigation.

Barbara Woodman of Concord, N.H., told Kerry the other day that she had been laid off from her job, but was going to work to educate her children. "I don't care how many jobs I have to work, those kids are going to college," she said. It's a hard-luck story, but not exactly a tearjerker. Kerry nonetheless wiped away a tear.

But hold your Kleenex, please. This is a rotten development. It means we no longer value traditional manliness in quite the same way, have begun to consider sentiment more important than reason in our public life, and value moral laxity and excuse-making more than responsibility.

Bill Clinton led the way. A Southern Baptist who was attuned to Oprah and who had been in family therapy, Clinton stood perfectly at the crossroads of three trends that have put a premium on emotional display: the rise of confessional daytime TV, which is a kind of emotional pornography; the rise of Southern religiosity, with its focus on "the heart"; and the rise of therapy, which prompts nearly everyone to talk in terms of their emotional "baggage" and "issues," usually as an excuse for doing something stupid or untoward.

It's no accident that Clinton, so prodigiously weepy, was also unable to control himself in other ways. When someone focuses too much on his own feelings and makes no effort to restrain them, he is unlikely to be moved by the call of duty or sacrifice, the virtues associated with traditional masculinity. In this respect, Clinton was the First Wimp.

Contemporary liberalism loves a weepy compassion-based politics precisely because it makes us see people as victims and makes it unlikely we will demand--so hard-hearted!--anything of them. It also degrades the role of thought in our political life, and puts a premium on doing what feels right, thus creating endless possibilities for empty or even counterproductive gestures of pity (such as the welfare system, prior to its reform).

It's not true that real men don't cry (one study says men cry 1.4 times, on average, a month). But they should avoid doing it in public. It seemed that Sept. 11 might create a renewed ethic of manliness in America. Those brave firefighters that day didn't climb the stairs of the World Trade Center because they "felt like it," but because it was their duty. Alas, we're right back to crying being nearly obligatory for a presidential candidate.

It's enough to bring a grown man to, well, anything but tears.

http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry090503.asp

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[sandnsea]

1. Truthfully, people should rewatch SC

The announcement speech. I hadn't heard anything about this 'crying' incident and wondered what in the world was wrong with Kerry's eye. He rubbed it throughout the speech.

But it doesn't matter to me, let people think Kerry cried. It's better than Mr. Compassionate thinking it funny to 'steal' people's tax cut checks.

[ModerateMiddle]

5. not the same incident

Kerry probably had sweat running in his eyes in SC, it was so humid and hot. The instance everyone is chattering about happened in a diner in NH.

[sandnsea]

6. Well no shit

I'm saying he was rubbing the exact same eye in South Carolina too. It's more likely he's got an eye infection or something. The man has been listening to sad stories like this ladies for 18 years, I honestly doubt hers made him burst into tears.

But like I say, I think it's a good thing for people to think he's so empathetic that someone's difficulties moved him to tears. Let them tell it any way they want. I just don't really believe that's the story.

[DrFunkenstein]

7. Calm Down!

It is very easy to take "Well no shit" the wrong way.

And, personally, I found the woman's story pretty sad. I might've gotten misty myself...

;(

[sandnsea]

10. I apologize

That was uncalled for. I was probably frustrated with another poster and overreacted with you. 'I know' would have been more than sufficient to answer your post. Very sorry.

[LearnedHand]

2. Um, that's a pretty cynical, bitter indictment

I think they're reading WAY too much intention and/or planning into this incident.

And why SHOULDN'T men cry in public? The "manliness" the writer described of 9/11 was also accompanied with extremely "manly" heroic women. Oh, wait, was that the return of "womanliness"?

On edit: Oh, excuse me. I missed the fact that your post was text from somewhere else.

[blm]

3. It was Rich Lowry who wrote it

He's doing his job. The Bushies don't want to face Kerry as the nominee.

[killbotfactory]

4. Crying is a natural response...

To anyone who realizes what Bush has done to this country.

[BraveDave]

8. actually...

he was crying because he had to admit that he signed something that he didn't read when he supported Bush's plans for Iraq.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. It was the PA that he didn't read.

He read the IWR.