What I Thought Before the Election

There is so much talk about needing to shake things up. The implication is that by putting a person not practiced in government in charge of our very complex union, in charge of our very diverse and complex society, we will spark a change, a seismic change, in our political process and the problems that plague it. 

 

To me this argument just doesn’t make sense. I won’t talk about the issues that involve misogyny, tax chicanery and the like. However, I will note that the acts of a President governing are not like those acts of a CEO running a for profit enterprise. You have to be a statesperson. You have to keep your cool under pressure.

 

A President can’t fire Congress if they fail to meet his or her executive objectives, quotas and goals. No instead you have to work with them and there has to be give and take. One candidate is uniquely unqualified to play well with others.

 

A clip of the candidate I saw was telling. He was asked was there anything he would ask for forgiveness from God. He replied no indicating he didn’t make mistakes. If in a hypothetical he can’t find something that he needs forgiveness for because he doesn’t make mistakes how will he lead us out of gridlock with the much needed compromises that will have to happen? Strength and humility not braggadocio will be our way forward.

 

In looking at this election I find myself drawn back to the documents of the founders, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 

 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, thatamong these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that humankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed;”

 

(Yeah I gender neutralized a couple of phrases-get over it and I left out the part where the founders said it sucked so very much for them that they had to act and not be sheep anymore).

 

I think the key phrase above is “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes…” We are not suffering the tribulations the colonists suffered at the hands of the British. We have the right to petition, we have a judiciary and we have representational democracy. We have for the most part a system that works as it is supposed to but there are problems. You don’t destroy what has worked in the past without a pretty damn good reason.

 

Prudence dictates a vote for someone who has served as an officer of the court, as a member of the legislature and as a key member of the executive working in the Cabinet. Putting a being that lives out his life in kernel sound bites, who acts with short tempered rage and vitriol and whose vision lacks depth is like pulling a pin in a grenade that will destroy the very fabric of our democracy. If it doesn’t do that it will degrade the operations of our government in ways that will be without parallel in our history and the effects will linger for generations.

You know that bit about waiting a few minutes before you send off that text to someone has irked you off so that you can think about the consequences? In recovery programs they say play the movie to the end. What happens if you take that next step? Well before you cast a vote for a remarkably ill-tempered and ill equipped candidate for the highest executive post in the land, think about the consequences. Just because you are pissed off doesn’t mean you should vote to elect a demagogue in waiting.