Mice and Men

He was considered "yesterday's man" in a turbulent time and regarded as irrelevant in his political arena. He got a lot of attention among his peers, however it was mostly the wrong kind. He often went against the grain of popular opinion in the legislature, even opposing his own party publicly. He was viewed as an aristocrat who was out of touch with the common man. His colleagues couldn't understand how he kept getting re-elected because the general consensus was that he had very poor political skills, was an unattractive candidate and exercised poor judgment. He was unchurched and drank too much and was widely considered boorish and smutty and an embarrassment to be around. He was also thought to be opportunistic having switched from the Conservative Party to the Liberals and then, later, switching back to the Conservatives. So, it was a shock to the people of Great Britain when, on May 10, 1940, Winston Churchill was appointed Prime Minister.

At about the same time across the English Channel, an Austrian native and former army corporal was reviving beleaguered Germany, a nation in turmoil after its World War I defeat and harshly pinned down under the Treaty of Versailles. Unlike Churchill, Adolf Hitler had exceptional political skills. He knew how to make a put-down nation stand tall again. With a keen sense of his adopted nation's history and spirituality, the nation of Martin Luther after all, he quickly became the attraction of millions and a unifying figure. Even before World War II began, he enlarged Germany's territory by taking over his native Austria, all of Czechoslovakia and many of the demilitarized surrounding territories were re-militarized. The German economy soared, people were working (and marching) and the country felt very good about itself.

These are the two most talked about politicians of the 20th century. Much has also been written about them and many lessons can be drawn from their lives. History is replete with examples of outwardly shabby people stepping into greatness through acts of uncommon valour and service while outwardly attractive people bring ruin on themselves and others through nutty self-exaltation.

While the above examples are extreme by today's standards they still hold some stark lessons for today's politicians. New York real estate magnate Donald Trump captured the American public's displeasure with the status quo and won the presidency. It didn't matter what he said during the campaign because people were too frustrated to care about the truthfulness of his claims. They were fed up and Donald fanned the flames of their discontent. But now he's in office and what he says matters and if what he says publicly can't be substantiated, he's going to assassinate his own character. In Canada, the Liberal government wants to pass a motion against what it calls "Islamophobia". True, it's only a motion and not a law but getting official about such a thing gives it legs, ridiculous though it may be. It also reveals the tremendous shallowness and immaturity of the Trudeau government. What does the Prime Minister hope to achieve? That people's feelings can be legislated against?

While Churchill was jolted into reality in recognizing evil, his sinister enemy became more and more self-deceived. The awful lesson? Truth matters. Today's American and Canadian leaders, though more than two decades apart in age, seem to believe they can make their own ideas reality just by thinking them into reality. They also seem to think they are immune from the consequences of their words and actions. Well, truth and time walk hand in hand and neither leader is above truth or time. In the end, both will be remembered either for their hubris or their lack of it. What they think of themselves won't matter in the slightest but how things end up will depend on the choices they make now.