Not Laws but Inspiration

By Hugh Sidey

When Dwight Eisenhower began to paint by the numbers, thousands of aging Americans who had harbored a secret conviction that they were latent Rembrandts set up easels and began to daub burnt umber and indigo onto keyed spaces of their canvas kits.

John Kennedy decided he would relieve the national melancholy precipitated by the Soviet Union's outrages in Berlin by suggesting Americans get in better shape by taking 50-mile hikes like Marine recruits. Leg cramps and heart seizures became epidemic as thousands of flabby citizens answered the call. Alarmed, Kennedy appealed for restraint.

Lyndon Johnson used to swear that when he caught cold the stock market automatically fell five points.

These are some of the humorous notes in the White House annals on the potency of presidential example. Today the importance of symbolism, tone and presidential interest may be even more significant in the process of governing.

Jimmy Carter's presidency could be noted (or not) as much for what he is as for the legislation he gets passed. There are hints that the bills he proposes will be viewed with a harder congressional eye than generally directed at a new President. For instance, Al Ullman, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, is already suggesting that his committee might have to change the Carter ideas about a tax cut.

As legislation has become more complex (e.g., energy and tax reform), it has become harder to study, formulate and finally pass. In this time of total communication almost any interest group can gain national attention--and most of them do, bringing a welter of pressures that retard the legislative process beyond anything we have seen in previous years.

It could be that at least right now the balance of presidential impact has tipped and the measure of Carter will lie in how he focuses national thought and attention. Some good men who have done a lot of legislating in the past have had similar thoughts as they have become frustrated in the legislative underbrush. Hubert Humphrey once mused about the White House task: "New laws? Laws? We have got too many of them now in some areas. We need leadership. A President can do a lot if he wants to just by using the power he has."

We could be at a point where presidential attitude will mean more than a new program, where the White House interest could count more than additional spending. The main engine of this nation remains the private sector. It is fueled by vision and inspiration as well as gain.

The presence of blacks throughout the Carter Administration in big numbers, or even Amy Carter's enrollment in an integrated public school, could change more hearts and minds than a laundry list of bills. Carter's interest in solar energy has already created ripples in that industry. The simple act of trusting the American people, something that Richard Nixon could never do, can cement this society and can create a powerful force for the general good.

There is worry about whether Carter has it in him. Language and voice are important in the act. In Franklin Roosevelt's time, words skillfully forged and used reached out across the nation through those cathedral radios and touched so many people that the anguish of the Great Depression gave way to new hope. It is not inconceivable that when we look back to the Kennedy years, their greatest legacy will be the short phrase "the pursuit of excellence." Kennedy relished it, practiced it in many ways, made poetry out of it in speeches, and that inspiration still lives with us.

The national campaign was Carter's first venture onto a huge stage. He just barely survived. His greatest challenge ahead may be in how he shows his concerns in his everyday acts and how he talks about the things that lie in his heart.

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