On Judging a Book by Its Cover

 

Watching a YouTube of RFK Jr. banning some food dyes. Why do I feel such spontaneous support for RFK Jr.? Why do I want to cheer him on, and go along for the ride? It is not ideology; RFK is broadly on the left, a big-government guy, and we probably disagree on much.

Is it family loyalty to the Kennedys? I am, after all, an Irish Catholic, and JFK was important to North American Irish Catholics in his day. 

No; I never liked Ted Kennedy, and did not trust or support RFK Sr. in his day. 

But there are certain politicians that seem to me to radiate good faith. They have a spiritual glow. Tulsi Gabbard gives me that same feeling. JD Vance gives me the same feeling. Look at his eyes. Pierre Poilievre gives me the same feeling, to a lesser degree. Nicole Shanahan gives me the same feeling. Ben Carson gives me that feeling. Eugene McCarthy gave me that feeling way back when. Jerry Brown did. 

By contrast, Vivek Ramaswamy makes me uneasy. Bernie Sanders does not give me the creeps, but Elizabeth Warren does. Trump does not give me the creeps, but also does not give me the warm fuzzies. Clearly, this is not related to ideology.

Joe Biden always gave me the creeps. Justin Trudeau maxes out on raw creepiness. Richard Nixon gave me the creeps to an extreme degree. Erin O’Toole powerfully repels me. Doug Ford repels me.

The sense is stronger when I am in the person’s physical presence. I once met Hun Sen, the Cambodian dictator. I could sense a great darkness. To a lesser extent, I felt a darkness meeting Sheila Copps, and, surprisingly, because I did not detect it at distance, Jean Chretien. But when I met John Diefenbaker, it was light. Intense light when I met John Paul II.

The issue seems clear: some politicians give me the impression they are in it for principle, and others that they are in it for power. What particular principle they embrace is less important. And the impression is somehow instinctive. You can see it in their faces; you can feel it. Not always; not consistently; but often.

Or I think I can.