Polls.
Get ready. We’re going to be inundated with presidential preference polls from now to election day in November.
Some will be straight-up, with questions on the economy, Russia, North Korea, jobs, healthcare, etc. Others will be the push-polls, conducted by both parties with questions carefully worded so as to elicit a certain response from the unsuspecting potential voter.
The results will swing back and forth between the two candidates. Republican push-polls obviously will show a trend favoring reelection of Donald Trump. Democratic push polls will reveal results favoring Joe Biden.
The straightforward, down-the-middle polls will also show variances as election day approaches with results governed by the latest developments in the coronavirus, international diplomacy, unemployment figures, crime, and other factors.
All of which means little in the overall scheme of things. The bottom line is what will happen after either Biden or Trump takes the oath of office.
So, here’s who I want for president:
- I want a president I can look at not as a Democrat or Republican, with no regard to race, religious affiliation, straight or gay, male or female, tall or short, but as someone I can respect as a person and a leader.
- I want a president who will look at the White House as the people’s house, a residence/office for which he will have a unique responsibility to safeguard and protect for the next four years. It is not his campaign headquarters, not an operations center from which he can plot revenge against political opponents, nor a base from which he may gain personal profit and enhanced power.
- I want a president who will look upon the White House staff, his military aides, and personal assistants as servants of the country and not his personal chattels. I would like a president who would look upon these staff members, aides and personal assistants as human beings with families, mortgages, hopes and dreams and that he would treat them with same respect and consideration that he would a family member. After all, they are his family for the next four years.
- I want a president who will give long and careful consideration when appointing agency heads, cabinet members and ambassadorships. Agency heads should be appointed from within the ranks, not political cronies who come to the jobs knowing nothing about them. Cabinet members should be chosen on the basis of background and ambassadors should be selected on the basis of diplomatic experience—not from Wall Street or from a list of big donors.
- I want a president who would call in his agency heads and cabinet members and say to them something along these lines: “One hint, one indication, that you take advantage of your office, that you do anything that violates my ethical code, whether it violates the letter of the law or not, and you’re out, no questions asked. I will not—shall not—tolerate any abuse of your position. Period. If you violate the law, I shall not defend you nor will I stand in the way of your prosecution. I don’t want you to embarrass me but most of all, you’d better not embarrass America.”
- I would like to have a president who can at least drive a car or cook his own breakfast.
- I want a president who places more emphasis on and attention to accomplishments that provide meaningful tax relief that would benefit small business and individual American taxpayers as opposed to awarding breaks to giant corporations and industry CEOs.
- I want a president who is willing…no, eager, to work with our allies and negotiate with our adversaries. Our allies must know that we wish to work with them on all matters. Our adversaries must know, in the words of John Kennedy, “…[W}hether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty”—and mean it.
- I want a president who is genuinely humble, but confident. By that, I mean I want a president who doesn’t go into a press conference as if it’s some kind of contest to see who can emerge the victor. I would like to see a president revert to the Harry Truman approach of taking walks with the press, fielding questions—and answering them [as opposed to dancing all around the queries]. I know security issues prevent that from occurring, but it would be a refreshing change from the adversarial press conferences we’ve become accustomed to. By humble, I mean a president who actually puts the country ahead of his personal interests. The office, after all, is not a prize, it’s a charge to do the right thing in every decision he makes and every action he takes.
- I want a president who would hang out a “CLOSED FOR BUSINESS” sign for lobbyists, big banks, big oil, big pharma, and others whose interests conflict with those of the American people.
- Finally, it would be nice to see a president who would, rather take the time to actually visit some working American’s kitchen, to drink coffee, tea or beer with them, than play golf. To see—and appreciate—how they live every day of their lives. To go over their credit card and bank statements with them to see and really, really understand and not just pay lip service to, the struggles of the average working American. I would like to see these as one-on-one visits, and not some circus of a photo-op set up by hordes of advance personnel. In fact, it would be far more meaningful if the media were barred from these events. A president could make one such visit a month and touch down in almost every state in a single four-year term.
Yeah, I know that’s a pipe dream, a fantasy that could never be. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could find such a president?
And isn’t it a little sad that we know it can never be?
Before the Democratic candidates started falling like flies, I suggested Morgan Freeman. He has played a good president in the mvoies more times than Trump has actually succeeded at being a good president.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to take another Billionaire or Hollywood personality serious as a candidate again.
Agreed. Too out of touch, the very antithesis of the ideal candidate described here.
Reading this actually made my heart hurt…This is what we teach our children to aspire to….and yet, we fall into that negative dark place, thinking it can never happen. Well, I still have hope….I want my kids and grandkids to live under just this type of president and will vote and speak out for that to happen. In other words: “I will NOT go quietly into that good night….!”
– “I would like to have a president who can at least drive a car or cook his own breakfast”
I spilled my coffee laughing while reading that one… We share a decidedly common set of standards for our CiC.
Here you are asking no more of a President than what we citizens, each and every one of us, has every right to demand. So keep the faith. Keep telling yourself that this current President is the aberration, not the norm. Proof only requires that you look to his immediate predecessor.
If we could have a president with even half these qualities – any half – I would be happy. In 2021, I would take 25% with aspirations toward progressively moving toward more. As Edith said, it is actually painful to read this list of what we do not have now.
I would also like to have a president who respects States Rights and not act as if he is the master of the world.
Well, Wild Bill, a president who doesn’t act as if he is the master of the world is pretty much what I described in my wish list, don’t you think? And a pretty radical departure from the present occupant of the Oval Office.
As for “States’ Rights,” well, that’s a term that’s been thrown around pretty loosely since at least the 1950s and back then it was the code word for white supremacy—and not too subtle a code at that. So, tell me, Wild Bill, exactly does “States’ Rights” mean to you? Give me a clear, concise definition of the term. Otherwise, your silence will be interpreted as your having no real clue and that it’s just a term like “hoax” or “fake news” or “deep state” that you heard somewhere and thought it sounded good.
And please, no help from anyone else. This is for Wild Bill only. I want to know his idea of “States’ Rights.”
Tom, what states rights means to me is what I feel like our founding fathers intended for this country, a very limited federal government with the states holding the majority of the power. I’m well aware of what states rights meant to a lot of people back in the fifties and I can say that type of states rights was wrong and immoral. The Federal government as it is at the present and has been for a long time has had too much control over its people and the states whom are supposed to be sovereign governments.
Wild Bill, I’m glad to know you weren’t referencing the old Strom Thurmond idea of States Rights. But the founding fathers first drafted the Articles of Confederation which vested all power in the individual states. The result was chaos, so they met again in Philadelphia in 1787 and drafted the Constitution and adopted the form of government known as federalism—a separation of state and national powers, but with a stronger, centralized federal government.
Trump more or less revealed the weakness of states rights when he tossed the ball of COVID-19 testing into the laps of the states and everything kind of fell apart. There are times when a strong central government is necessary and the disorganized state responses to the coronavirus illustrated that.
But I do better understand where you were coming from. The current (third) economic relief bill currently pending before Congress is a whopping 1800 pages long. Seriously, how can it be necessary to take 1800 pages to draft legislation—any legislation? The Bible isn’t 1800 pages in length and it’s pretty thorough.