5 of 12 (President vs. Poet)

Zadie Smith discusses the voices of poets versus the voices of presidents.  She states that presidents tend to give only one voice.  If they give more than that, they are seen to be liars.  Poets give out many voices depending on what they are writing or how they are feeling.  We have grown to expect our president to be one sided.  The political parties have made it this way.  All of these people cannot share the same mind 100% in all of their views, but the government and the parties make it seem this way.  Presidents do not get the freedom that poets do.  Poets are praised for having different voices.  They are seen as being brilliant for doing so.  Poetry requires different voices to create the pure beauty that is poetry.

Smith suggests that it would be refreshing to have a president who had many voices like the poets.  The president should be able to feel two ways on a subject.  They should not lie and go along with everything, but they should be able to express their opinions freely without being harassed.  The political parties put their candidate up because they know they will be representing them.  This puts a lot of pressure on the candidate to do what they are told instead of what they want.  The president should share the voices of his or her people.  He or she should be able to communicate with the many different crowds of our nation.