Symbolism in American Politics

There is a strong element of the French imagination which is part of the American spirit. It is an imagination which cares about symbols as much as it cares about policies and results.

In 1871, Henri, Comte de Chambord, ultimately refused to take up the throne of a restored constitutional monarchy in France because he refused to reign over a state that flew the Tricolour, while those desirous of a restoration of the monarchy refused to bring back the white flag of the Bourbons.

Conservatives would do well to be aware of this element, not to dismiss its significance, nor to look upon it with contempt. Since the Third Reich, we have been taught that all symbolism is mere propaganda. This is not true.

Critics like to say that Mr. Obama was elected because he ran on a hypocritical manifesto of low taxes and bureaucratic reform. This is only partly true. Self-interest explains only so much. He won the African-American vote because he was a symbol of emancipation, and the votes of countless other groups and individuals because he was a symbol of progress. These facts ought not to be dismissed as mere childishness. They should be taken for what they are, homages to the place of passion and poetry and things of the spirit - think of Yeats - in the hearts of countless peoples, passions that must be moderated but that cannot and ought not be silenced.