What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight’s last gleaming’.
Do you recognize these words in the title of this piece? They are the opening lines of the American national anthem, sung at big public occasions every year. We generally hear the first verse only, sung by the reigning diva who can hit the high note at the end. I believe that Whitney Houston is pretty much universally regarded as the one who hit that note best.
As the 45th President goes down the terrible, narrowing path towards impeachment, with his actions being investigated, and what he sought to cover being exposed, blustering through and shedding his former advisors along the way, I think that the citizens of his country must be finding it hard to sing those words. As the music swells, they are surely forced to contrast the lyrics with their current situation, led by an individual so far from the image of the ideals of statesmanship; and so not an embodiment of the qualities they want to admire in their leader.
In feudal societies, the King was supposed to embody the values most admired by the people he ruled. What a comment on the state of the nation that prides itself on being a beacon of democracy, that today this is their leader. The vulgarity he displays: the misogyny, the bullying of the vulnerable and the minorities, the coarseness of speech, the narcissism and the random rambling discourses via Twitter signal the end of an Empire, presided over by a man who makes his own citizens ashamed, because he represents the worst of them, loudly and proudly.
He has continually given the signal for crudeness, littleness of vision, bigotry and inhumanity to be normalized, and this era of the history of his country may be looked back upon as a low point for the people who felt they lived by God’s decree in ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’.
We should not underestimate the moral force of accountability. Human beings judge each other not only by their appearance and their words, but by their conduct, and leaders are held to a higher standard of conduct than ordinary people.
In ancient agricultural societies, the King’s conduct was said to be observed by the gods, who rewarded moral and righteous behaviour with prosperity and good rains and bountiful harvest. If the land suffered famine or drought or flood or disaster, and the ruler did not act correctly to remedy the situation, the ruler himself was seen as lacking. The leader could not survive for long when the people retracted their belief, hope, trust and admiration from him.
Remember the usurpers in the dramatic historical plays, who found the robes of kingship sitting awkwardly on them, because they were made for bigger men? The role of the ‘leader of the free world’ shows the character of the incumbent: his (or her) strengths and weaknesses, unadmitted flaws and innate greatness. The spotlight is on the undeserving, and its illuminating power is harsh.
Human beings need to aspire to something higher than their baser selves. They need to see their shining ideals reflected back at them, not defaced and degraded to the point that public celebrations are hollow travesties of joy, and empty gestures of one deluded man’s vanity and the sycophancy or fear of those that support him.
I wish the last verse of the anthem was sung more often:
‘Oh thus, be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!’
I find it amazing that leaders today think the contrast between their rhetoric and their conduct is not visible to the voters whom they claim to represent. With access to contemporary technology, we have every petty insult and spluttering invective on YouTube on record forever. We can contrast the promises scattered like confetti in the year of election with the laziness, stasis and disinterest, brazen corruption, venality and bored time-serving in the years afterwards.
Tyrants and fascists may boast that breaking the rules of decency is a show of strength, but accountability is something that actually matters: the congruity of words and deeds, of promises and their fulfillment. Normalizing the bad behaviour of those in authority does not alter that. In fact, it intensifies and sharpens the need for it. Freedom and bravery depend on that congruity. It takes courage to make dreams of greatness come true - not only for an elite or a first family and their cronies, but for the people who have labored for so long - with so little respect or even attention, from those they have mistakenly elevated over them. 
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