Michael Maccoby Responds to the Commentaries

These commentaries both expand on my essay and stimulate further thinking on what America needs from its president.

Robert Shapiro is not only an incisive political economist. He also shows knowledge of Athenian history and psychological understanding. As he points out, marketing narcissists are driven by their anxiety. Trump deals with his anxiety of being a nobody or a loser, which for him is the same, by projecting a grandiose image and practicing the power of positive thinking he learned from the Presbyterian preacher Norman Vincent Peale.

I won’t quarrel with Shapiro giving Trump an even lower grade than I did on his economic policies. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump’s poll numbers were rising because of the growing economy, rising stock market, and low unemployment, but the cost was increasing inequality, and cutting government spending on health, education, welfare, and the nation’s infrastructure. As Shapiro writes, Trump failed the test of responding effectively to the pandemic, and because of this, his poll numbers plummeted.

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Judith Harris expands on the importance of a leader’s philosophy. A weakness of much psychological analysis is the exclusive focus on behavior and temperamental traits without examining a person’s purpose and values. Harris writes that “personal authenticity is at best a means to be a good person and at worst a barrier to this.” I take this to mean that acting out some of our authentic impulses would not necessarily make us a good person. Good (moral) leaders like Lincoln and FDR express and practice philosophies that further the common good, even when their impulses might direct them in another direction. This is the opposite of Trump, who ignores national interest to further his self-interest.

Charles Heckscher’s wish for a president who is a unifier rather than, like Trump, a divider raises an essential question. To what extent is unification possible in modern-day America? America was briefly unified during World War II and after 9/11. In both cases, America had been attacked. But America was deeply divided during the Vietnam and Iraqi wars of choice. Now we are divided by both cultural values and economic interests. Heckscher writes, “we are locked in a vicious circle of mistrust, driven by relatively small numbers of ideologues.” Heckscher suggests we can be brought together by a leader who listens to and respects his opponents and offers a unifying vision.

FDR faced a country divided by haves and have-nots and fought for his New Deal against hostile business interests. He unified the 60% of the electorate who voted for his second term, but many opponents never stopped hating him. Heckscher cites Lincoln’s often quoted appeal from his first inaugural address that Americans should be friends, not enemies. But after his moving words, more of the South seceded from the union, and Lincoln had to lead a war for reunion and the long-overdue liberation of Black slaves.

I do agree with Heckscher that we need a vision that will appeal to a healthy majority of the American people. I’ll come back to this after responding to the other comments.

Ken Fuchsman describes the factors making it difficult to elect the president we need, even with a majority of the national electorate. He writes, “If democracy is defined as the rule of the majority, then the U.S. government does not have a democratic structure.” The authors of the Constitution didn’t want to create a democracy, but rather a republic with some democratic processes.

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The word democracy doesn’t appear in the Constitution. In Federalist 10, James Madison wrote that in a pure democracy, a majority could oppress minorities unless there were checks and balances that protected the rights of minorities. But the founders did not envision an America with huge income and cultural differences. The challenge for us now is to build a just, healthy, and prosperous future based on the values established in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Who is a leader who can and will lead the process?

Can Joe Biden become the president we need? Paul Elovitz describes Biden’s positive qualities and his history of supporting progressive policies well. Biden has a caring personality with its strengths of empathy and bringing people together. Unlike Trump, his purpose is to further the common good. But he also demonstrates weaknesses common to this type of personality, particularly the tendency to avoid necessary conflict. Both Lincoln and FDR had Congressional majorities, but both had to fight for their policies. Lincoln had a Republican majority in Congress to pass the 13^th amendment to the Constitution that outlawed slavery, but he had to threaten and bribe some members of Congress to vote for the amendment. FDR had a Democratic majority in Congress, but he faced strong opposition to passing New Deal policies. Can Biden stand up to opposition that may come not only from Republicans but also from the far Left in his own party? To become the president we need, he will need a Democrat Congress, the ability to create a supportive coalition, and the will to fight for the policies that can further a just, healthy, and prosperous America.

Benjamin Wegner views racism as an expression of Trump’s narcissism and the narcissism of his White base. Trump’s attitude toward Blacks can also be viewed through the lens of his marketing personality. Politically, like Republican presidents since Nixon, he plays to the racism of his base. Personally, he judges people according to whether they are, in his scoring, winners or losers. He can befriend Black winners like Tiger Woods, Kanye West, and Dr. Ben Carson, but shows contempt for powerless Blacks, Hispanics, and for that matter, all those he considers losers.

There are two related types of racism. One is personal prejudice based on individual and group narcissism and ignorance. The other is structural. It includes unjust policing, bad schools, poor housing, lack of health care, job discrimination, and obstacles to voting. Government policy can’t change a person’s prejudice, but

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it can and should deal with and overcome structural racism.

If Joe Biden wins the election, he can become the president we need by expressing and fighting for a vision of a healthy, just, and flourishing America that addresses the inequities in our society including structural racism. He must persuade a majority of Americans that we will all benefit by realizing this vision. It won’t be enough for Biden just to be caring and empathetic.

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