If you watched the latest Ken Burns documentary on the Roosevelts, then you know that when assessing anyone, you’re forced to take the good and the bad.
For example, Teddy Roosevelt, the monopoly buster, could be seen as a man of the people. Just not the Filipinos. TR wasn’t all that bad — for an elite imperialist. Lover of animals? Almost as much as he took joy in hunting and killing them. But what do you expect from a man who never met a war he didn’t like? Nobody’s perfect, right?
Or do we understand that our contradictions are part of what makes us all complex beings and that compromise, especially in politics, complicates any appraisal of a life. Maybe all we can do as we look over someone’s past is hope to find a sense of balance. I thought of that as I considered Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation last week.
As the first African-American to hold the office, Holder had a stellar record as a man for civil rights, from voting rights, to gay marriage, to speaking out on race relations and fighting hate crimes.
But with Holder, civil rights too often took a back seat to civil liberties. The NSA couldn’t have done what they did without Holder’s backing. Government surveillance all flourished under Holder.
And even when it came to the First Amendment, the basic principle that protects the academic freedom those in higher ed cherish, Holder’s record is not good. Not when it came to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning? Whistleblowers and leakers are on the run.
Meanwhile, James Risen of The New York Times is facing jail for his story on a bungled CIA operation in Iran, and, some believe, for being the first to break the story of the NSA’s surveillance of Americans.
