D ��*•� - 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