The challenges of greatness

The Kitchen Sink
    By Karen Abravanel

Afew weeks ago, adrift on the algae-coated waters of Lake Titicaca, I was forced to consider the increasing rarity of great American presidents.

It was not a likely locale for a discussion of politics, especially not American politics. But, as our motorboat sputtered between different islands, creating the only disturbance in the tranquil water, our guide's description of the area turned inevitably to the success of Peru's current president.

"I like Alberto Fujimori very much," said Wilberth, a fifth-year tourism student at the regional university in the nearby town of Puno. He concluded that "Fujimori is the best president that Peru has ever had."

Whether or not they support Fujimori's politics, most Peruvians admit that he has been a force for progress in their country. Economists laud the control of hyperinflation and foreign debt; businessmen take advantage of an economy so open that imports cost little more than domestic products; and all citizens praise the virtual elimination of the threat of the Shining Path terrorists. "This is all since Fujimori," I often heard from guides, friends, and even taxi drivers.

Perhaps because the conversation on Lake Titicaca occurred the same day as President Bill Clinton's, LAW '73, televised mea culpa, I found myself strangely jealous of Peru's situation. While we question our president's private failures, Peruvians are able to proclaim their president's public successes; while we chuckle at late-night television's offensive jokes about our president, Peruvians can still believe that theirs is the best president they have ever known.

Greatness does not necessarily mean perfection; on the contrary, it can make it harder to let go. A significant number of Peruvians worry that Fujimori is becoming a demagogue as he asks the congress to change the constitution again and allow him a third presidential term.

Yet when Wilberth expressed such admiration for Fujimori, he displayed neither less cynicism nor more naïvete than his counterparts in the United States. Rather, he demonstrated a level of gratitude that the situation in the United States denies us.

Scandals aside, we live in a climate of relative social, political, and economic prosperity. We have never been afraid to leave our homes because terrorists controlled our streets, we have never lived under a government ruled by corruption and the military, and we have never dealt with a rate of inflation so high that, in the words of one Peruvian CEO, "long-range planning meant next week."

President Fujimori's challenge was to find solutions for such problems, and when he took office, the Best President title was essentially up-for-grabs. Peru was in such a terrible state that anyone who reversed the downward trends would have a guaranteed historical legacy.

But when, as in Clinton's case, the nation's problems are much less significant, the president must work much harder to be remembered. President Clinton's challenge, therefore, is to find problems that he can solve. Since our lives were generally good before our president took office, even with the recession at the beginning of the decade, we hold him to a much higher standard: if he wants to earn our gratitude, he must achieve something truly magnificent.

Yet in the United States, compared with a country such as Peru, there are few candidates for this truly magnificent achievement. Clinton's reduction of the national unemployment rate cannot measure up to Fujimori's removal of his country from complete bankruptcy, and Clinton's role in negotiating other nations' peace settlements is not nearly as impressive as Fujimori's suppression of guerrilla warfare in his own country. In this regard, our situation is fortunate for us, but not for our president.

Such comparisons may help explain why we are so judgmental of President Clinton, and why we are fixated on his personal life. Fujimori guards himself and his office with tanks and goose-stepping soldiers, but even without such protection, he would probably be free from the circus of attacks and inquiries facing Clinton. Out of gratitude for their president's great accomplishments, Peruvians would likely overlook his personal shortcomings.

Peru and the United States may not differ so much about the requirements for a presidential legacy. At the end of our conversation about Fujimori, Wilberth asked me to name the best president that the United States had ever had. "Abraham Lincoln," I replied, without hesitation. "Back in the 1860s, he carried our country through a terrible civil war." Perhaps we are simply farther along in our presidential history.

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