There’s a lot of chatter about next year’s presidential election, and a lot of polls asking one group or another what opinion is current. The answers that are publicized mostly involve people claiming that they want more attention paid to them or to something they want, or they’re bored with the candidates. While some needs are legitimate, especially as they relate to such things as having clean water in a community, or affordable housing, most do not pass serious muster. Elections are not popularity contests, and candidates are not movie or sport stars, but the media plays us as if they are. It implies the fallacy that because “so” many people think one way, everybody should. We’re left with a disconnect between reality and how a candidate is working on important issues within that reality.
In this time of multiple crises, it is important to ask if a candidate has the experience and wisdom necessary for dealing with both national and world problems with integrity. If in office, what are they doing, or trying to do? If a candidate, are they merely making promises, or really working on solutions? Our infrastructure includes highways, electricity, water, arable land, internet, and probably more that need upgrades. Climate disasters abound. Internationally alliance with NATO, support for Ukraine, diplomacy for both Israel and Palestine, and above all, climate change abatement agreements with other countries is necessary. Climate change, together with political upheaval, drive the great migrations evident in the world and along our southern border. What is any candidate doing to improve these things, not if in power, but right now, whether or not she/he gets elected?
Many past presidents have not stopped their efforts to help people at home and around the world after leaving office. Note that it wasn’t the office or the power that was important, but instead the honorable intention to serve as a positive force for all people.
Our relative comfort and prosperity belie the need to measure carefully what kind of future a particular candidate would foster. Don’t let that comfort fool you into complacency.