I
am not throwing away my shot!
I
am not throwing away my shot!
Hey
yo, I’m just like my country
I’m
young, scrappy and hungry
And
I’m not throwing away my shot!
This spring, our house has been pulsing
to lines like the one above, from the smash-hit musical Hamilton. The show tells the story of Founding Father Alexander
Hamilton through hip-hop, dance and brilliant modern-day storytelling. Anyone who
has seen the sold-out musical or listened to the bestselling album has probably
been hooked on the songs just as my wife, daughters and I have been. Lin-Manuel
Miranda’s music, lyrics and dynamic method of bringing Ron Chernow’s Hamilton biography to life are
captivating in ways that call to mind other groundbreaking musicals such as Rent and Book of Mormon – shows that dared to be different and offered a new
direction for Broadway.
Part of what makes Hamilton so impressive is the degree to
which it speaks to our modern-day world. In Miranda’s hands, we see a show that
addresses many of our hot-button issues of 2016, from immigration to race to financial
policies to foreign affairs to electoral politics. Hamilton also makes it clear that heated debate – yes, even heated
fighting – has long been a part of American politics.
But despite the musical’s indisputable
relevance, I’d guess that even the subject of this show would be surprised at
the level of absurdity present in the 2016 presidential election campaign. It’s
all been very well documented, so I’m not going to review it with you again.
But suffice it to say that no matter how much Alexander Hamilton might be
intrigued by the idea of attack ads, Twitter posts and sound bites, he would be
disappointed in the tone of this election. After all, this was a man who much
preferred taking on his opponents face to face instead of letting others fight
his battles for him.
And that’s where things get most
frustrating for me as I follow the current presidential campaign (from a
distance, as I can’t bring myself to get too close to something this ugly).
When I hear candidates raise ideas that they clearly don’t plan to follow
through on, but that serve to rile up an angry base, I am reminded of a
memorable line from The Great Gatsby.
By the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
classic novel (which, like Hamilton,
speaks to the 21st century throughout every page), narrator Nick
Carraway can no longer refrain from judging two of the characters he’s been
describing for us. The husband and wife due of Daisy and Tom Buchanan have left
a disaster in their wake as they leave town, and Nick knows that they will not
be the ones to suffer from this. He says, “They
were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and
then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it
was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had
made.”
This, in a nutshell, is
Donald Trump. He raises ideas and proposals that he will never bring to pass,
even if he were to be elected president. He will not actually build a giant
wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, nor will he arrest women seeking
abortions. But because he says these things, Trump brings out emotions in those
who take him at his word. And the mess that someone like this can make
overshadows any positive steps he could conceivably take as a leader. But he’s
a smart man, and he knows that if he says there might be riots if he’s not his
party’s nominee, he is both planting an idea and recusing himself of any blame
for such violence. He won’t be the one committing any violent acts, so he’ll
just shrug his shoulders and say he’s disappointed at what happened.
This kind of behavior
is not just a political thing, of course. It’s human nature. We see it when Kim
Kardashian posts a nude selfie, knowing that her influence will lead young
teenagers to try the same. We see it when Roger Goodell says that if he had a
son he’d love to see the boy play football, when in fact the NFL commissioner
doesn’t have a son and knows that many youngsters who play will sustain
concussions unless the game is made safer. We see it when Ted Cruz promotes
Christianity on the campaign stump, knowing that this is being read by some as
code for “no Muslims.” So long as you imply your point instead of directly
stating it, you’re as safe as Tom and Daisy.
Humans can be sneaky
communicators, and they also know how to use their power, wealth and social
status to make a tremendous mess of society. They know that their words and
actions can hold incredible weight, and they are willing to use that leverage
to watch others start a fire after they’ve left the lighter fluid on the floor.
Alexander Hamilton had
plenty of flaws, for sure. But he acted on his beliefs, said what he thought,
and made his own mess – even the one that led to his own death. “Every action’s
an act of creation,” Miranda sings in the song “My Shot.” It’s not uncommon for
works of art to speak to our needs better than the leaders we’re considering
for elected office. This year, that is particularly true. Miranda’s miraculous
work of art is worth every moment we give it, for through his words we might
just find a way out of this electoral mess we’re in, and into the light of engagement,
collaboration and hope.
It’s time to take a shot.
