Nuff Said: Why does no one good want to run for President?

Nuff said is a collection of posts/articles from around the web that has drawn my attention in the following ways:

• Made me think
• Made me wonder
• Made me feel

Here’s what I’ve noticed lately:

Adam Maclane wrote a post back in 2017 with this same title. This was before the Democrats took control of the House in the 2018 elections. I’m enough of a conspiracy theorist that I still scratch my head dubiously about how exactly they did that without more election fraud than we want to know about.

Think about it. If there is massive election fraud going on, it would undermine any remaining confidence we all have in the election process. I fail to understand with all our technology how we have such a ridiculously inept election reporting process. We know there was election fraud. An article in the journal Electoral Studies suggests that as many as 2.8 million illegal aliens voted in the 2008 election. What was going on when winners were declared and “missing ballots” were found late on election night or in the following days in so many states that flipped seats from Republican to Democrat in 2018? An article in the National Review Democrats Dismiss Voter-Fraud Worries, but Reality Intrudes paints an unsettling picture of how Al Franken may have won an election due to voter fraud in Minnesota.

In 2008, illegal felon voters appear to have swung the outcome of the critical 2008 Minnesota Senate election. The day after the election, GOP senator Norm Coleman had a 725-vote lead, but a series of recounts over the next six months reversed that result and gave Democrat Al Franken a 312-vote victory.

The outcome had a significant impact because it gave Democrats the critical 60th Senate vote they needed to block GOP filibusters. Franken’s vote proved crucial in the passage of Obamacare in the Senate.

Minnesota Majority identified 1,099 felons – all ineligible to vote – who had voted in the Franken—Coleman race.

Nine out of ten suspect felon voters contacted by a Minneapolis TV station said they had voted for Franken.

• What motivation do people on the West Coast have to vote if their candidate is far behind?
• What gain is there in declaring victories on the East Coast as soon as polls close?
• Why can’t we have term limits in place for Congress? It’s beyond ludicrous that we have “professional” politicians!
• Why do we allow ungodly, astronomical spending on election cycles? (Hillary Clinton spent a record $1.2 billion on her failed 2016 campaign!)

But these pale in comparison the the main question:

Why don’t our best and brightest aspire to be President?

In the article I mentioned at the beginning, Maclane asked the following pertinent questions:

Why don’t people who look really qualified and popular run?
Why aren’t our best military minds going into politics?
Why aren’t inventors?
Why aren’t thought leaders?
Why do emerging politicians stop themselves from moving up the ranks?

His conclusions were two-fold:

1. He felt that the election cycle itself is far too long. “Not very many highly driven people really want to campaign for nearly 2 years for an opportunity at a 4-year job. If we shortened this down to 6 months I think better people would run.”
2. “The scrutiny is inhumane.”

To those, I think I’d add:

1. Finances are prohibitive. The idea of raising $500 million or even a billion dollars??!! Insane.
2. Family. It doesn’t just take a unique candidate. It takes a unique family with thick skin. I think Maclane was right about the absurd amount of scrutiny and criticism that our current President’s family has received as well as Brett Kavanaugh in his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, you have to wonder who would want to go through that?
3. Humility. There has been a real absence in humility in elected offices in the last few decades. The idea of working together for the common good has been destroyed, and I do mean, destroyed, by partisan blindness and vitriol. What we get, then, are not our best and brightest.

Ideas for the future

• Term limits for Congress. Seriously, this is such a no-brainer, that the only reason I can see that it hasn’t been enacted is that those who are currently professional politicians protect themselves from losing their jobs with religious zeal.
• Limitations on political advertising. Follow me here. I think we should impose a ban on political advertising. We have PBS and NPR. Both are publicly owned. Require each to air candidate’s informercials, interviews, etc. – equally, in given time slots. Allow candidates to have their own YouTube channels in order to communicate their platforms, views, responses to the competitor, etc. But don’t allow millions of dollars to be spent on advertising on TV channels.
  • You know who’s opposed to this? TV and radio stations. Because they reap the benefits of an election season, hand over fist. It may actually keep them in business. It may also explain why they stir things up so much.
• Balanced budget admentment. We must require Congress to balance the budget. We can’t spend more than what we take in. Period. And it will hurt for 5-10 years as we curtail spending to pay for what previous administrations have done to get us in the financial hole we’re in as a country. You don’t hear much about national debt these days, but it’s ridiculous. ($22 trillion; US Federal Budget Deficit $860 billion)

Run we must

I don’t mean “run away.” Rather, we must urge our best and brightest to consider serving us, serving our nation, as leaders in politics. Hugh Hewitt wrote In, But Not Of Revised and Updated: A Guide to Christian Ambition and the Desire to Influence the World. It’s a provocative read. It encourages believers to engage our culture with discernment, courage, and love.

Finally, I’m not suggesting that President Trump is not “good,” but I think we’d all agree that we have not been given dynamic options of proven, diplomatic and humble candidates in our last few presidential elections.

What would it take for someone you know to run for President.. or a state or local office? A few years ago, I attempted to run for town council. Who knows…