Choosing a president…

The when was easy: November 3, 2020. The what was easy: the election of the next president of the United States. The where and how was a little tricky since state officials wanted to expand the absentee ballot process to everyone but without the formality of requesting a ballot and validating one’s right to vote.

But it was the who and why that were problematic.

I was challenged by a friend to pick the five most important personal criteria to select a presidential candidate. I was explicitly asked not to consider patriotism and the likely impact of the individuals on the military, economy, and culture, including the brouhaha over the replacement of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

After some careful consideration, this is what I was able to develop, totally independent of party politics and using only my observations.

While I am a constitutional conservative, and probably have a confirmation bias towards President Trump, I found it difficult to concentrate on the individual and not the betrayal of a party and administration that would subvert Executive Branch agencies, spy on Americans and opposition candidates, and cover-up their actions with other illegal activity.

I am open to suggestions…

If anyone has a better set of individual criteria or disagrees with my fundamental observations, I am willing to offer you the opportunity to comment and discuss any similarities or differences.

Bottom line…

Unfortunately, politics is in the realm of emotion and subject to the influences of background, education, peer pressure, and the external persuasion of the media. We are left with poor choices, and it is our duty to eliminate the poorest of the two poor choices from consideration. I wish there were more acceptable candidates, but it is what it is.

For me, the choice is intuitively obvious – re-elect President Donald Trump. When one steps away from the chart and considers that we are at a crossroads, one road leading to increased capitalism and the continual improvement of our standard of living and cultural norms or our descent into the shared misery of scarcity and socialism, the choice could not be much more apparent.

In the event that Joe Biden is elected, it is my belief that he will be removed from office, leaving us with an unelected President and unknown Vice President. Or, alternatively puppet-masters behind the scenes. 

In totality, re-electing President Trump is likely to achieve three national goals: improve the quality of life, right a wrong, and prevent the end of something good, namely our Constitution and system of capitalism. 

We are so screwed.

-- steve