In the 1930s, President Herbert Hoover’s second-in-command was Vice President Charles Curtis, who had once been a powerful Senator. A magazine article about Vice President Curtis is credited with coining a phrase that has endured for almost a hundred years: “It’s lonely at the top.”
According to the Outlook and Independent magazine, “Vice-President Curtis has discovered that it is always lonely at the top. His old poker and racetrack pals have fallen away since he became Vice-President. Now he must press his pants and polish his shoes.” Evidently, that was a turn-off for his poker and racetrack friends.
Still, other successful types have found solace when they hit the big time. Actor Aldo Ray, upon celebrating a major award said, “Yes, it’s lonely at the top. But to be honest, the view is good.”
These days, I’m sure it’s still lonely up there, although most of us will never know. I’ve always been amused by mega-celebrities who scratch and claw to get to the top. Once they have achieved the fame and fortune they have sought, and are on the receiving end of adulation from the masses, they crave the peace and anonymity they once had.
One current political figure comes to mind. Never shy about capitalizing on the misfortunes and shortcomings of others, this elected official recently made the news due to a family breakup. Suddenly there were cries of “give me my privacy.” This is what happens when you’re at the top.
It’s actually rather comforting not to be at the top, and I can rest easily knowing I will never get there. I lack three traits that have propelled the Taylor Swifts and Tom Cruises to the top of the world: the desire, the drive, and the ability. I consider myself to be among the overwhelming chunk of Americans in the middle. I have tried to avoid the bottom, although that’s a daily battle for us all. And I can assure the “one percenters” at the top that I’m no threat to crash their party.
While the middle is a crowded place when it comes to income and status, it’s a lonely island in the political world. If over the holidays, you tried to play the middle card, chances are your relatives were aghast.
“Wait, you don’t have any beliefs at all?” they would cry. “Well yes, I just don’t lean far left or far right.” In most cases, this effort at moderation does not achieve the desired result. It just makes everyone else mad. “You HAVE to be on one side or the other!” they say.
Not me. I’m firmly entrenched in the middle. The great columnist Dave Barry made me laugh with his annual New Year’s Eve review of the year gone by.
For example, I find this funny: “President Biden announced a massive program to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt. Also everybody who failed college chemistry will get bumped up to a B-plus.”
Now that’s comedy, and I would hope even Biden fans would get a laugh out of it. But Mr. Barry is an equal opportunity humorist. During another part of his tribute to 2022, he wrote this: “New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit accusing Donald Trump of falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements and failure to pay $327 million worth of parking tickets. Just for fun, Trump declared that he’s guilty.”
As regular readers of this column may have noticed, I have often advocated for new blood in 2024. I can find admirable qualities (and lesser ones) in both Biden and Trump, but as Dave Barry also noted, “both are older than the Adirondack Mountains.”
So here we are, ready to dive head first into 2023. The good news: it is NOT an election year. The bad news: so much campaigning will take place, it will SEEM like an election year.
If you have already chosen your side, and already drawn your line in the sand, that is your right and privilege. That lonely figure in the middle will be me, hoping someone with energy, honesty, compassion and intellect can pull me in their direction.
