The Obama victory had struck a malaise in me (or perhaps it was the keg stand). The resultant bed-tied activity was to watch over eight hours of John Adams, an acclaimed HBO miniseries tracing the founding father from the revolutionary war to his death.
The series has left no doubt of American exceptionalism in modern history. The series does little sugar-coating as is often accomplished with American history. The follies of the participants and of both sides are clearly told. But America is a crystal ball for the future. The society is more recognizable to the modern audience than any other society of the time period. One telling scene has John Adam’s wife speaking Latin while the subservient British equivalent sat dumfounded. Another is Adam’s visit to the perfumed, beautified and indulgent Parisian aristocrats soon to be irradiated.
John Adams is a brash, stubborn, no-bullshit politician. He won the 1796 election from his porch in Quincy. He was a pragmatist vested in the interest of America above all else. As lawyer he defended the English of the Boston Massacre; as a congressman he promulgated and signed the Declaration of Independence against the King. As emissary he courted the French, Dutch and later the English, and as president, he turned his back on them. Indeed, Adams was a true centrist who neither succumbed to pressures of his own party (the Federalists) nor that of the Republicans (who now are called Democrats).
Parallel to revolutionary America is revolutionary France, which had its revolution not long after America’s. The response of monarchist England was war. The Hamiltonians were intent on supporting Britain while the Jeffersonian wanted to back revolutionary France as a similar endeavour as America’s own. But Adams prudently signed a treaty with Napoleon (a treaty with Britain was signed when Adams was vice-president), knowing that young America could not withstand another war. It was this self-sacrifice of sorts that had him lose the 1800 election to Jefferson. John did not pull a George W. Bush.
John Adam is shown to be steadfast in his principles if misguided at times. He leaves his wife and sons for too long and later disowns one. He is painfully unsympathetic to a son-in-law that he deems to have failed. He contrives royal titles for president (“his majesty, his highness”) and is laughed out of congress.
But John Adams risked losing an election for the good of Americans. Adam’s independent thinking, pragmatism and unyielding idealism are qualities unseen in modern-day presidents. How sad a country of America’s pedigree should bear no resemblance to its heyday.