In his biography of Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Ellis locates in Jefferson’s intellectual persona the “‘once upon a time’ character” of his interpretation of history*. Ellis used that theme while discussing A Summary View of the Rights of British America and in the Declaration of Independence. Quickly, the gist is that once things were as they should be, and now they are corrupt. In Summary View, Ellis writes, Jefferson evoked an “elaborate and largely mythological version of English history” wherein the Norman Conquest corrupted society with the notion that all property belongs ultimately to the king.
Ellis says this about Jefferson’s frame of mind while writing Summary View:
But the appeal of the Whig histories derived from something more than rhetorical or logic power. They were influential precisely because they told a story that fitted perfectly with the way his mind worked. Their romantic endorsement of a pristine past, a long-lost time and place where men had lived together in perfect harmony without coercive laws or predatory rulers, gave narrative shape to his fondest imagination and to utopian expectations with deep roots in his personality. The Whig histories … put into words the visionary prospects he already carried around in his mind and heart.
I thought about Ellis’s description of Jefferson’s once-upon-a-time-ism today. It came to me when I heard a politician talking about helping Main Street rather the Wall Street. (No link is needed, you hear a variation on that theme often enough.) The Main Street evocation is an interesting and vague rhetorical device. I wonder if Main Street, like Jefferson’s pre-Norman Britain, is mythological.
What does a politician mean while evoking Main Street? A small town? The dead center of an old city?
My hunch is that ‘helping Main St’ is a rhetorical nod toward populism. But it is lazy and irresponsible. I think ‘Main St’ is a stand-in for the central, downtown commercial road in a small to medium sized city. On it are several small businesses owned by residents of that city. To protect that would require some massive state or federal government intervention into local governments’ zoning and economic policies. Is that what the Main St protectors suggest? Or, perhaps, a constitutional amendment affecting the commerce clause, and allowing state and local protectionism against big box invasion?
Another rhetorical possibility is that ‘Main St’ refers to the idea of middle class, suburban living – work at an office park and trips to Home Depot, Walmart, Target, Lowes, Olive Garden, and TGI Fridays. (such an evocation makes no sense as big boxes don’t normally fit on the smaller ‘Main Streets,’ but we’ll leave tht aside.) Protecting Main St can only mean, in that sense, protecting the people, because those establishments are owned and run by ‘Wall Street.’ Given, they employ local citizens; but, again then, the rhetoric must logically refer only to the people, not the businesses.
Ultimately, it is unclear and potentially meaningless to make political hay of protecting Main Street. Rhetorically evoking Main Street is an attempt to do what Jefferson did with his utopian freedom-loving ancient Britain. It is apparently, weirdly enough, part of human nature to think things were better back when. When you got your shoes shined on Main Street, secured a contract with a firm handshake, and never sued anyone. The reality of which is all hogwash. It works though, I think, because we want that Main Street.
Main Street evocations fall into the category of interesting rhetorical maneuvers that bring the audience’s attention to how it wants things to be. The problem with it is that it is beyond unspecific, it is deceptive. I would love to live in Mayberry, but last I checked downtown is mid-gentrified and there’s a Great Clips where Floyd’s used to be.
*He mentions this as being what folks call Whig history; but, I thought that was the sense that history has led up to a more perfect present, which is quite different from what the upcoming quote suggests, so I’ll leave aside for now what Ellis means by Whig history.
