There is an interesting scene in The Godfather ll where the ever dying , Hymen Roth, lectures Michael on the unfortunate and untimely death of his good friend, Mo Green. After extolling on about the enterprising genius of Mo Green and his ‘invention’ of Las Vegas, Hymen angrily stated that despite the great contributions of his friend, “there isn’t a plaque, or a signpost or a statue of this man.” Hymen went on and said, “someone put a bullet through his eye…no one knows who gave the order…and when I heard it, I wasn’t angry. I knew Mo and I knew he was headstrong, talking loud and saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead – I let it go. And I said to myself — this is the business we have chosen.” Hymen ended his up-close soliloquy by emphasizing that he “didn’t ask who gave the order because it had nothing to do with business.”
As I have written before, there is much to be taken away from the first two Godfather movies. This column will focus on another cool takeaway from Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpieces. I have heard many in the political theatre misuse and misinterpret this pivotal Roth scene. The anti-hero explains away the rationalization of tolerating abhorrent behavior and in that scene justifying or defending the status quo, and politicians are quick to leap on this bandwagon to justify equally abhorrent political treachery. Let’s do some cross-pollination with politics.
When paralleled with politics, this scene offers a glimpse of life in politics. Taking a step back, one of the overriding themes is that you can do a lot in this political business of ours, but don’t expect them to name a building, a street or a plaque in your name. If you are in the vanity business or care about legacy stuff, keep moving along and find your validation somewhere else. Additionally, if you are in this business to be saluted or honored, you don’t have your eye on the right focus point and you will be incapable of getting the job done. Pretty straight forward stuff.
The other standout point in the above exchange is the business we have chosen.
Many mid-level politicians use the line about doing the rough and tumble stuff in politics and effectively harm or hurt others for a selfish purpose and justify it with a sweeping non-apology by saying, this is business we have chosen. As if invoking and reciting that line will offer immunity and protection and justification for the destruction or negative action. Not by a long shot.
There is some truth in what Hymen Roth said about the business we have chosen. But make no mistake, when you are asked to pull the trigger on someone in politics or undertake some skullduggery, understand that invoking a line from The Godfather doesn’t get you some dispensation. You need to fully understand that you are responsible for the actions that you take and you can’t message away any guilt or slough away any ramifications of your highly personal action in your chosen profession.
Much like the movies, politics can be a cold ruthless and cutthroat business. There are very few places of real loyalty, and the game of politics waits for no one. One day, you can be the greatest and most powerful and successful politician and the next day, you can be rendered a liability or worse, a non-factor. In those circumstances, I suggest that some in the political arena would rather be dead than irrelevant.
In closing, many of us have chosen this business, but hopefully some of us are wise enough that the reward of this chosen business is just helping others and doing the right thing.
At the end, Hymen proved to be a wise man who has allowed Father Time and his many criminal experiences pass along some informative and instructive life lessons for the rest of us.
I’m hopeful that the aspiring political power players out there fully understand the rough terrain that they are playing on and the possible consequences of their actions.