Perhaps I’m paying more attention to this U.S. Presidential election because I have children now.

Or perhaps, it’s actually as unusually bizarre as it seems.

I polled Facebook to see what friends are thinking about candidates. I’ll share a summary of their thoughts and also my own thoughts. My distilled thoughts look like this.

I know, I know—sharing political opinions is dangerous. This could get dicey. :sweat: But if everyone’s afraid of saying what they actually think, our country doesn’t work.

To be clear: I might disagree with you, but I don’t hate you. I’m trying to be reasonable and fair in my analysis. If you think I might be misunderstanding something or otherwise lack information, you’re welcome to email me (or if you want to be anonymous, fill this out),

Here we go…

What does the President even do?

The Constitution (a.k.a. “The Rules”) says that the President (in summary):

  1. executes the law
  2. gets paid
  3. shall “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution”
  4. is the Command in Chief of the military
  5. grants “repreives and pardons”
  6. makes treaties
  7. nominates and appoints all kinds of people
  8. gives recommendations to congress from time to time
  9. convenes and adjourns congress in some cases (didn’t know this)
  10. interfaces with other country’s governments
  11. avoids getting impeached

You may notice something that’s conspicuously absent from the list:

  • makes laws

“When I’m President, I’ll repeal Obamacare!”

“Oh!” says the nice lady at the So You Want to Be a Politican? workshop. “You signed up for the wrong position. Senators and Representatives are the ones that repeal Obamacares.”

The President doesn’t make (or repeal) laws. And yet how much time do candidates spend telling you about all the changes (laws) they plan to make? I think it mainly comes from duty #8 above (“gives recommendations to congress from time to time”) and because he’s the leader. He leads the country, and the legislators.

He doesn't make the laws—he leads the legislators to make them.


What am I looking for in a leader?

From my life’s experience, I know that I like to follow leaders that are:

  • good
  • happy and optimistic
  • brave
  • honest and forthright
  • efficient and decisive
  • knowledgeable
  • good spelller
  • patiently persuasive
  • faithful and prayerful

I could probably list a bunch of other words, too.

What my Facebook friends said

I received responses from friends in favor of every candidate except Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. If you support either of them, please tell me why. Here is a summary of my friends’ thoughts:

There's no point arguing with me about these -- these are not my words.



Candidate For Against
Hillary Clinton
  • "will deliver exactly what you'd expect"
  • "is a hate machine"
  • scandalous
  • doesn't care about our military
  • "will deliver exactly what you'd expect"
  • "is a criminal"
  • "has lied millions of times"
  • looks out for her own interest
Ted Cruz
  • understands and defends constitution
  • nice ideas for abolishing IRS
  • seems intelligent
  • questionable integrity
  • "I think he's a jerk."
  • divise and wrong for America
  • "I just don't like him."
John Kasich
  • impressive resume
  • wants to balance the budget
  • agree with him
  • not persuasive enough (to voters or potentially to congress)
  • who?
Bernie Sanders
  • consistent and principled for 30 years
  • doesn't take mony from corporations or super PAC
  • "will raise my taxes"
  • socialist
  • pro choice
  • awesome ideas, but how is he going to pay for them?
  • in the end, we will all be more poor
Donald Trump
  • can say whatever whenever
  • "will make sure America always gets the last word."
  • disrespectful
  • not specific
  • narcissistic
  • doesn't understand the laws of the land
  • offensive toward women

Someone else?

The most thoughtful response I received was from a friend recommending that I not vote for anyone listed above and instead look at third party candidates or write in my own name (not my name). This friend feels that all the above candidates advocate too much for war.

I think there’s some merit in exploring third party candidates. Of course, in order to win, my thoughts about a third party candidate ought to have begun more than a few days or weeks before it’s time to vote. (<-- I think there's a lesson here) Getting a third party candidate elected seems like it would take more active participation. For this election, I think it’s too late to do that.

What am I looking for in a President?

In summary, I'm looking for a good leader. This leader doesn’t need to originate all the good ideas—this leader needs to be able to inspire the right set of people to come up with the good ideas. This leader doesn’t need to legislate—this leader needs to persuade others to legislate well.

I have feelings about certain issues, and the issues do come into my decision. But I’ll be honest—I would rather have a President that is a good leader, even if I disagree with him on some issues. And this desire is perhaps why this election is so disappointing: there seem to be so few good leaders.

Here’s a roundabout way I use to determine if I think someone’s a good person/leader. I realize that I’m not electing a first grade teacher, but the answers still give me value:

The Candidates (Alphabetically)

Hillary Clinton

  1. Would I want her helping me escape a war zone? no
  2. Would I want her as my children’s first grade teacher? no
  3. Would I want her as my boss? No!
  4. Would I want her as a business partner? No!
  5. Would I want her in charge of food in famine? no
  6. Would I want her spending the night at my house? no
  7. Would I want her managing my 401k? no way
  8. Will the country be better when this president is done with it? slightly worse
  9. Is she inspiring? no

I don’t trust Hillary. But I think that if she’s President, there will be less damage done to the country than if Trump were elected. I hope the race isn’t between Hillary and Donald.

Ted Cruz

  1. Would I want him helping me escape a war zone? probably
  2. Would I want him as my children’s first grade teacher? maybe
  3. Would I want him as my boss? no
  4. Would I want him as a business partner? no
  5. Would I want him in charge of food in famine? maybe
  6. Would I want him spending the night at my house? maybe
  7. Would I want him managing my 401k? sure
  8. Will the country be better when this president is done with it? slightly better?
  9. Is he inspiring? not greatly

I don’t know how I feel about Cruz. He seems a little underhanded/slimey. But his principles seems good. My perception of him could be wrong.

John Kasich

  1. Would I want him helping me escape a war zone? maybe
  2. Would I want him as my children’s first grade teacher? Yes
  3. Would I want him as my boss? yes
  4. Would I want him as a business partner? sure
  5. Would I want him in charge of food in famine? maybe
  6. Would I want him spending the night at my house? sure
  7. Would I want him managing my 401k? I don't know
  8. Will the country be better when this president is done with it? could be
  9. Is he inspiring? in a soft way

I like Kasich. But like some of my Facebook friends noted: I’m not sure he’s persuasive enough to be an effective President. On the other hand, he could be an excellent not-in-front-of-the-camera leader (a workhorse, rather than a showhorse)

Bernie Sanders

  1. Would I want him helping me escape a war zone? no -- we'd die
  2. Would I want him as my children’s first grade teacher? yes
  3. Would I want him as my boss? no
  4. Would I want him as a business partner? no
  5. Would I want him in charge of food in famine? no
  6. Would I want him spending the night at my house? sure
  7. Would I want him managing my 401k? absolutely not!
  8. Will the country be better when this president is done with it? definitely not
  9. Is he inspiring? idealistically, sure; but practically, no

I think my reluctance to go along with Bernie can be summed up by these paraphrased words of George Bernard Shaw: “A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”

I don’t blame the “Pauls” of the country for supporting Bernie because it is in their self interest. Ironically, it would take an idealistic “Paul” to think outside himself and vote against a man promising him all these free things.

Donald Trump

  1. Would I want him helping me escape a war zone? maybe... if he wouldn't ditch me
  2. Would I want him as my children’s first grade teacher? no
  3. Would I want him as my boss? No!
  4. Would I want him as a business partner? no
  5. Would I want him in charge of food in famine? no
  6. Would I want him spending the night at my house? no
  7. Would I want him managing my 401k? maybe
  8. Will the country be better when this president is done with it? aaaaaaaahhhh
  9. Is he inspiring? he inspires in the wrong direction

Conclusion

So, who should you vote for? I don’t know.

Who am I voting for? I don’t know yet. :confused:

Oh, and remember

I don’t hate you, even if I disagree with you.