Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
As we get into the final few months of 2012 election season, get ready for more and more stories about the youthful indiscretions of our various candidates.
We already have had a handful of stories in this vein: Romney was a bully at the Cranbrook School; Obama wrote some really awful poetry in his younger years and, more seriously, outright fabricated portions of his memoir; most recently, we’ve learned some details about Paul Ryan’s past. First, he was voted ”biggest ‘brown noser’” his senior year of high school (he was also prom king). Second, he was a big fan of Ayn Rand, the arch-libertarian whose capacity for warmth, kindness, and moral empathy was rather small, to say the least. That’s not a great association to have on the campaign trail, where you’re trying to win the hearts and minds of undecided voters (the news today is that Ryan has renounced his affections for the ice queen of the libertarian movement).
All of which begs some questions: Can’t a candidate escape the reputation of his youth anymore? Why should we care about what our political leaders did in high school or college decades ago? Can’t we give them the benefit of the doubt that they’ve grown, matured, and learned from their past mistakes? Or are the skeletons of their past a useful window into how they’ll govern in the future?
There’s a reason why the media and we, the voters who consume it, are fascinated by these childhood stories. Childhood and adolescence are times that really define who an individual is. It’s in those years that one’s characters and opinions are formed. “Where are you from?” is one of the first questions we ask someone we just met because we think that a person's origin can give us a clue about who they are.
Everyone, especially our celebrity leaders, has a personal “creation myth” – the story of how they got to where they are. The important thing about creation stories is not whether or not they are true. The important thing about them is what they reveal about the myth-maker. In the cases of Obama, Romney, and Ryan, those revelations–big and small–say a lot.
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Comments:
Jul '12
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
If your high school years can keep you out of office then I am hereby disqualified.
May '10
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
Alas. My high school faults are the same ones I struggle with today. The same is true of my limited strengths. So I don't mind the reporting about them. But I am loath to judge anyone too harshly based on those stories either. It seems likely that going forward, because of the increased digitization of everything, that candidates' pasts will be increasingly reportable. As an electorate we are therefore going to have to become more generous in our judgments. I say this with the caveat that my generous standard excludes texting pictures of one's genitalia -- that's a bright line for me.
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
I'm headed to my 20th high school reunion this weekend. I don't possess the necessary distance from my own life to evaluate these things, but as I look on those friends of mine I've had since high school, I think that we definitely can point to our strengths and see them developing by that age. The weaknesses, however, are different. My best friends seem to have grown up quite nicely and put away some of their childhood faults. I pray I have, too.
That's why when I hear stories about other people from their high school days, I try not to judge too harshly. That age range is still firmly in the "capacity to do stupid stuff" era we all go through.
Sep '10
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
I post under a pseudonym to ditch my Dante's Disco Inferno permed hair and platform shoes. We all have our hair shirt, but few of us use conditioner on it.
Mar '11
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
Well, I hope Mr Ryan didn't spend his last two years of high school stoned out of his mind in a VW camper with all the windows closed, and being mentored by a Communist. Oh, wait - that doesn't seem to be a disqualification.
Jan '11
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
Well, if we're entitled to play amateur psychologists to the point where even a dopey jerk like me can speculate on "what it all means" that Paul Ryan did X, Y, or Z in high school, I think civilization is lost.
If Ryan read a poem by William Blake in high school, what does it mean? (My answer: I have no idea.)
Apr '11
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
Doesn't everyone read Ayn Rand in high school? I mean it is kind of the typical cliched high school thing to do. Neil Peart read Rand at that age and dedicated a whole album to her. A rather awesome album I might add.
Jun '11
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
Not to send this careening off in another direction, but Ayn Rand wasn't a libertarian. Her philosophy was Objectivism and she had a pretty dim view of Libertarians. (Big L and small l.) For example...
Q: Libertarians advocate the politics you advocate. So why are you opposed to the Libertarian Party? [FHF: “Egalitarianism and Inflation,” 1974]
Ayn Rand:They are not defenders of capitalism. They’re a group of publicity seekers who rush into politics prematurely, because they allegedly want to educate people through a political campaign, which can’t be done. Further, their leadership consists of men of every of persuasion, from religious conservatives to anarchists. Moreover, most of them are my enemies: they spend their time denouncing me, while plagiarizing my ideas. Now, I think it’s a bad beginning for an allegedly pro-capitalist party to start by stealing ideas.
So, if Ryan now rejects Rand (Ayn, not Senator Paul) he isn't necessarily speaking out against libertarianism.
Aug '10
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
When did high school activity become a focus of a presidential election ?
Just another desperate attempt to shift the attention to something other than the nothing that is the present admin.
Suspect we will be hearing about it though. Wouldn't it be alot easier just to handover the MSM to the Journolist gang, be alot of cheaper !
Jul '11
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
The relevance of what a candidate did in the past diminishes with the passage of time and the severity of the event, thus if a candidate had a DUI when in college 20 or 30 years ago, so what? On the other hand, if while in High School a candidate had a habit of kidnapping people and eating their organs while making them watch, I would consider that somewhat relevant.
Mar '11
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
If high school matters, then no one will be electable in 2040.
Jun '10
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
What's the lesson that the libs are trying to teach us, using the example of Paul Ryan liking Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"? Apparently, the lesson is, if you disagree with a fiction writer (on religion, or welfare policy) then you HAVE TO dislike their art too. Because if you like someone's fiction, then you have to agree with the author on everything. If the author is an atheist, then you must be an atheist. That liberalism stuff seems very intolerant.
Feb '11
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
"Being an Ayn Rand fan" and "being a major brown-noser" don't really seem to go together, unless this was a *very* unusual high school.
Sep '11
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
I'm guessing you did--or at least heard one of William Blake's poems set to music. "And Did Those Feet in Ancient Times," possibly Blake's most famous poem, is the text of the hymn "Jerusalem," by Hubert Parry.
If you saw the movie "Chariots of Fire" you heard the hymn (the title of the movie comes from a line in the hymn/poem).
Jerusalem
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Edited on August 15, 2012 at 10:40pmBring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.
Jul '10
Re: Paul Ryan's High School Days: Do They Matter?
Choom! I was just outraged when I heard of Ryan's philosophy of Total Absorption . . . I mean when I heard he was able to read in high school what kind of elitist high school encourages reading and not drug use? Wait a minute, here's an idea, we could encourage all of the children of America, from all races, creeds, national origins, sexes, and socio-economic classes to read, and maybe to do math. All of them, none of them left behind, we could call it, hmm, how about No Child Left Behind! I bet Romney could bring it back! I got me a fever and the only cure is MORE ROMNEY!