Politics – To Be a President

I don’t feel like scanning the headlines today, so I’ll leave that for Friday. Today, I’ll elaborate on what I think a president should be and what the office should entail.

Being the president shouldn’t be a desired job. It shouldn’t be a job that you aspire to for the glory or the cushy lifestyle. It should be a job that one takes because they know they can make the lot of the US better than it was before.

It should be hard and inglorious because glory draws gloryhounds. Becoming the president shouldn’t lift you above the average folk. It shouldn’t end up making your rich or increasing your wealth. There should be no monetary concern involved in it. Though a president should be provided for while in office, they shouldn’t leave there appreciably more wealthy simply because they were the president.

Presidents should set their own beliefs aside in favor of the common good. They aren’t kings or other such rulers who serve their own interests. They’re servants of the people. Thus should leave some aspects of how the people live and shape their society to them alone. Such is a careful balancing act between that which the president should work on and that which he or she should leave alone, for the people to decide state by state.

A president need not be eloquent. I listened to Obama chat up the VFW today and some of the well polished, flowery words he had to share made me smirk in disdain. The more colorful one’s words, the more likely they’re false words or platitudes. I prefer a president who speaks plainly to the American people.

Don’t hand me a load of rhetoric as if that will effect my thinking. I swim in rhetoric and BS every time I read the news or watch some official televised function. All it does is make me think less of those who spout such things.

There shouldn’t be grand, personal presidential libraries that resemble museums more than actual libraries. All presidential correspondence and other such historical minutia should be stored in a central ‘library’ of presidential history, not unlike the National Arcives(probably better they be in their own facility, who knows how much room the Archives have after all these years).

It should all be stored there, administered by people who answer to no political party or affiliation. A dull, simple record of the history of the office, where people can go to review the triumphs and follies of the past without the spit shine of insecure men and women looking to create some grand legacy.

The office of president should be a simple affair, drawing simple, talented people. As it stands, there is too much glamour, too much to call those who care more for their own mark in this world rather than the welfare of the people and the world. We need a change. But who will bring the right change?

If I find em, I’ll let you know.