The
Beginning of the End
Perhaps
no presidential election in our lifetime, has been more contentious
and divisive as the one now taking shape for 2016.
Both
of the two major parties have never produced such weak and
questionable candidates for the highest office in the land as they
have with such less than illustrious candidates in the persons of
Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump.
With
a population of over 300,000,000 people, one would hope that a nation
of this size could somehow produce a crop of candidates that the
nation as a whole could place some trust in.
Instead
we have forced upon us a group of people as candidates who would be
much better suited to be on a wanted poster than a campaign flyer.
We
have a candidate in Hillary Clinton whose main objectives are that
she should be elected because she would be the first woman elected
president, or because she feels that it is her “turn” to sit
behind the desk in the Oval Office. No one’s qualifications for
president should be predicated by gender or the misguided notion that
it is somehow their “turn” to hold that office. Ones “turn”
at something is usually relegated to games and not in the real life
world of politics where the determining factors should be ability,
experience, and character. Anything less is detrimental to that
office and is most definitely detrimental to the nation as a whole.
Then
we have a candidate in Bernie Sanders who generally always voted with
the Democrat Party during his tenure in Washington, ran as an
Independent, and is a self avowed Socialist. That is until he decided
to run for President as a Democratic candidate. A man, who like most
of his followers, does not have an understanding of the most basic
economics, yet he, and especially his followers stop their critical
thinking when they hear the words “free”, and either ignore or
don’t care that the “free” he promises would only lead to
economic slavery to taxes and government dependance for us, our
children, and our grandchildren.
Last,
but not least, we have a candidate in Donald Trump who is willing to
say anything and do anything to get elected to the office of
President of the United States. A man who can blatantly denigrate
minorities, women, and the disabled, and get away with it. A man who
talks in a loud, arrogant braggadocio, and gives his supporters his
policies in such general, shallow terms, that even he doesn’t know
what his policies and plans are. Indeed, when he is questioned about
those policies, like the quintessential politician his answers ramble
in a broad expanse of nothingness that never reveals just what his
ideas are. Thus leaving one to come to the conclusion that all he has
are general talking points, and hasn’t given his own vague, vapid
statements any real thought. Yet his supporters will laugh, applaud
and cheer, and with their mob mentality defend with their dying
breaths the glaringly obvious shortcomings of their chosen one, even
when those shortcomings and actions should alarm even the most dim
witted amongst us.
There
was once a time in this country of ours, when those we elected to the
office of President, were statesmen...leaders…moral...those in whom
we placed our trust and believed that whatever they did they did
because they thought it best for us, and our country. People who led
by example, and not people who make a mockery of everything that is
good, noble, and decent like today’s leaders.
Now
all we can see is that statesmanship is dead. Like the Roman Empire
before us, we have leaders who place themselves above the good of the
United States and all Americans. Leaders who are characters instead
of having character. Leaders who throw off all semblance of morality
and fairness, because morality and fairness don’t matter to
Americans anymore. Americans don’t want morality and fairness. They
want lies and half-truths. They want all that they can get and future
generations be damned.
Is
this what we want? Is this what we want for our children and our
grandchildren, and their children after them? Is this what America
has become?
God
save the United States of America.
