Qualifications For National Leadership

[questor]

The US is getting ready to elect a new president. The country seems in turmoil over the war, immigration, foreign relations, the economy and many other issues. In fact, there are so many areas of disagreement, you might suspect that people tend to think in different neural pathways. There are impassioned speeches, insults, accusations and dirty tricks being performed by some presidential candidates. There are two mechanisms at work here:

one is the almost incomprehensible fashion in which Americans elect their leaders, the second is the total lack of consensus of the voters--they are coming from different sides of the spectrum in their philosophies. Is our country going to continue to be split on philosophical political issues or is there a way we can reach consensus and come together again as The United States? One of the most important questions is who will be our president over the next four years? Whoever it is, all Americans must live by the laws engendered by our legislative and judicial bodies.

Since we have such a divided electorate, is there a way we could agree upon certain desirable traits needed for good stewardship of the country? Could we agree that honesty is better than dishonesty? Can we agree that love of the country is better than a love of power? If we could come to an agreement

over which qualifications best suit the job of president, could not we then see how each candidate meets those qualifications?

To start things off I will list traits I consider important for a national leader.

1. Honesty

2. Ability to communicate

3. Good moral values based upon Judeo-Christian tradition

4. Intelligence

5. Firmness of purpose

6. Ability to reason rationally based on experience

7. Knowledge of world history

8. Even tempered personality, does not act rashly

9. Business experience because he/she will be in charge of the world's largest business

10. Desire to do the best for society and the individual.

11. Experience in fiscal, political, and management positions.

This will do for openers. Please add your own desired qualifications and I may add a few of my own. All candidates do not possess these qualifications.If you disagree with any of these, please explain why. Hopefully we will vote with our heads and not our emotions.

How does your candidate stack up?

[Symbology]

The US is getting ready to elect a new president. The country seems in turmoil over the war, immigration, foreign relations, the economy and many other issues. In fact, there are so many areas of disagreement, you might suspect that people tend to think in different neural pathways. There are impassioned speeches, insults, accusations and dirty tricks being performed by some presidential candidates. There are two mechanisms at work here:

one is the almost incomprehensible fashion in which Americans elect their leaders, the second is the total lack of consensus of the voters--they are coming from different sides of the spectrum in their philosophies. Is our country going to continue to be split on philosophical political issues or is there a way we can reach consensus and come together again as The United States? One of the most important questions is who will be our president over the next four years? Whoever it is, all Americans must live by the laws engendered by our legislative and judicial bodies.

Since we have such a divided electorate, is there a way we could agree upon certain desirable traits needed for good stewardship of the country? Could we agree that honesty is better than dishonesty? Can we agree that love of the country is better than a love of power? If we could come to an agreement

over which qualifications best suit the job of president, could not we then see how each candidate meets those qualifications?

To start things off I will list traits I consider important for a national leader.

1. Honesty

2. Ability to communicate

3. Good moral values based upon Judeo-Christian tradition

4. Intelligence

5. Firmness of purpose

6. Ability to reason rationally based on experience

7. Knowledge of world history

8. Even tempered personality, does not act rashly

9. Business experience because he/she will be in charge of the world's largest business

10. Desire to do the best for society and the individual.

11. Experience in fiscal, political, and management positions.

This will do for openers. Please add your own desired qualifications and I may add a few of my own. All candidates do not possess these qualifications.If you disagree with any of these, please explain why. Hopefully we will vote with our heads and not our emotions.

How does your candidate stack up?

 

I would expect that if you ask most any voter he will tell you his candidate is all of those things, and that the candidate he opposes lacks many of those things.

 

To my observation they are all human with their own set of values. So what it comes down to is what it already is - a match up of values on things like war, immigration, foreign relations, the economy.

 

For example many people would say that you left off an important qualification - military experience, since they will also be the commander in chief.

 

I'm told that in Greece one of the requirements for political office is that they have to have served in the military. To my observation this would naturally tend to create a militaristic mindset within the government. But I will have to observe that I don't hear about Greece getting into much trouble in the world.

 

Then again maybe we should look deeper at that point, since a veteran tends to be one of the strongest advocates for peace. They truly understand what the costs of war are.