I hate elections where I have to vote for “the lesser of two evils,” or throw away my vote. I have a dream. More of a fantasy, really.
I have been thinking a lot about what kind of person I want be president of the United States. The primary qualities are integrity, wisdom, and experience of the right kind.
Integrity includes not just honesty, but a commitment to stability and impartial rule of law. Wisdom is not just intelligence and knowledge, though both are necessary, but also humility and commitment to continued learning and search of the truth, which must include listening skills and the ability to synthesize information and make good decisions. Experience — the duties of president are defined in the Constitution, and they are basically two: to faithfully execute the laws passed by Congress and to be commander in chief of the armed forces.
The civilian job is basically an administrative one. In order to manage it effectively, the president should be experienced in selecting knowledgeable, capable people to staff the heads of all departments (secretaries of agencies, ambassadors, etc.), be able to define and communicate his or her goals and expectations clearly, and then trust them to do their jobs. If this is done well, the departments work in concord with one another, and there is no need for micromanaging.
The commander in chief of the military has additional requirements. Every specialized sector of society has its own vocabulary and culture, and communication is essential to filling this role; therefore, ideally, the president should have personal military experience.
I recently read “Call Sign Chaos,” by Bing West and Gen. James Mattis about his life and military service. As a general, he has the skills listed above and has proven his loyalty to the republic. He has one other qualification I like: he has kept neutral with regards to politics. Ours is not a parliamentary system. The office of president should be strictly nonpartisan in accordance with the separation of powers written into the constitution.
To get back to my dream-fantasy. If all the Republicans and Democrats, who are tired of their parties’ plunge to extreme positions, and all the independent voters could join together and draft such a person to run for president, perhaps he or she could win enough electoral college votes to throw the election into the House of Representatives. Perhaps enough of the partisan representatives would put aside their personal agendas long enough to see that the best thing to bring the country together would be to take a chance on someone who makes no partisan promises (“I am not Santa Claus” – Paul Tsongas) except to faithfully execute the office of president.
I can dream, can’t I?
Judith Truesdell is a resident of Shelburne.