The way we elect our presidents has gone askew. The American dream has vanished in a swirl of money, lies, and false promises from a parade of candidates who want to get elected for the highest executive position in the land. It seems to me that our president should be chosen on the basis of his or her qualifications rather than a popularity contest. A case in point is our most recent president, who is taking an "on the job training course" in running the most powerful nation in the world. He is learning as he plods along , trying to make the best of a bad situation of his own making.
Our president should be intelligent, well educated. and a person of high moral character. By that, I do not mean churchly, but a person who can rise above the blandishments of the clergy and approach the trials of his position with secular skills that appeal to the majority. Our president must be balanced to address his tasks with effective measures, on both domestic and foreign affairs.
We must have a leader who shuns the power brokers. How so we find such a person? One remedy would be to call for a constitutional amendment which would revise our election process. Future presidents could be appointed by Congress, and serve at the will and pleasure of our elected representatives in the Senate and House. This measure would provide the means by which an ineffective president could be removed. The millions of dollars now spent could be salvaged for a more productive enterprise
As I read your blog on this topic, dad, I got a visual image of our presidential election being run more like the pop show "American Idol." Everybody loves to hate judge Simon Cowell, the British creator of the show, but in my opinion, he's usually right on the mark in evaluating the depth of each performers' talent. He's made many comments year after year about how frustrating it is that the American public has turned the competition into a popularity contest vs. voting based on true talent. I think that our political system does the same thing...we vote on someone based on their popularity, or some characteristic that is currently popular to us or the circles we run with, rather than vote based on track record and talent as a proven leader.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we need to turn our electoral system over to the producers of "American Idol" and allow people to text or phone in their votes rather than continue to fork out millions of taxpayer dollars for improved voting systems...?!! In the end - the results would very likely be the same as they are now, but we would have saved millions of dollars! LOL!