It's hard to decide whether Abraham Lincoln or
Thomas Jefferson is generating more public discussion this week. Lincoln, of
course, because of Lincoln, a film about the sixteenth president and the
Civil War that has left historians
and others
debating its accuracy and wondering how it manages to leave black
people out of the story altogether. And Jefferson because of Henry
Wiencek's recently released book Master of the Mountain--which according
to some misrepresents the third president as a
monster and according to others doesn't go nearly far enough in
acknowledging his monstrosity.
In both cases, it's pretty clear that American audiences prefer to continue
revering our past presidents as mythological political heroes, figures we can
turn to for stories about American moral and ideological purity, bereft of any
complicating details that might taint or compromise that fantasy.
But if you ask me, the most compelling readings of
both Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson this week were on Showtime's
television series Homeland. I'll admit to being a bit behind on my
viewing of the series (and those who are keeping up may by now have little
interest in my take on what happened several episodes ago), but the show seems
to me to be offering a sustained reflection on why it's a mistake to fetishize
America's political figures.
