Word: idealist
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...cold and careful calculation of strategic interests. America is unique in that it is equally motivated by idealism. Whether it is the fight against fascism or communism, or even misconceived interventions like Vietnam, America's mission is to further not only its interests but also its values. And that idealist streak is a source of its global influence, even more than its battleships. As became clear when the Iron Curtain collapsed in 1989, America's clout in the world comes not just from its military might but from the power and appeal of its values. Which...
...deeper truths about Clinton and his country than journalism has yet been able to provide: that of course the better angels of Clinton's nature are in bed with his devils, that each side requires the other, that his political gifts can't be separated from his personal flaws. Idealist and cynic, moralist and seducer, truth teller and liar, misty-eyed romantic and gimlet-eyed backstabber--it's all one package. Maybe the right leader for now is the one who will stop at nothing, the one who can be absolutely sincere while lying through his teeth...
...works for the New Yorker, published under the pseudonym Anonymous. If you mix the primary colors red, yellow and blue, the result is black. But this is no black comedy. It is a wistful story, about honor (Nichols says) and (we say) about the joy and pain of an idealist's love. Cagily, it asks big, brutal questions. What will we do for someone we love? What will we do for someone we want to love? When this person is a politician and has a shot at becoming the most powerful man on earth, good people can do pretty cruddy...
...legends--from Massachusetts' original James Michael Curley to a young idealist named John F. Kennedy '40, to the shepherd of the Democratic revolution in Congress, Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, to blue-collar standard bearer, Joseph P. Kennedy...
...have to wonder how much Fidel Castro admits to himself that much of his dream has turned to ashes. Even this idealist--and he is that--has been forced to stop practicing what he still preaches. He has to be concerned that the political and economic systems he holds dear have exhausted themselves everywhere else. Yet his heart is not in economic reform or in political liberalization, and he has grudgingly done only the minimum required to survive...