So, this is what I cannot understand.
When people chose a leader what is their qualifying
priority? Do they look for someone who is good, proper, decent? Or someone who
will benefit them?
What are the qualities that define the person who gains their
vote?
Earlier, I believed most people simply voted along party
lines, or along their preference to change the status quo. Now I realize people
vote according to who they are. And the elected define what our society is ready
to become.
Ideally, we must expand our thinking and consciousness beyond
a petty ‘me’. Picking a candidate for your taxes or something personal is just
wildly selfish. This is the President of the country you are voting for. We
need to see the big picture. We must think of the communities in need of change,
the future and growth of the nation, and our standing in the world.
I understand some people cannot look or feel (or even know of
anything!) beyond the narrow confines of their own homes. And well, ignorance
is not a crime. So they vote on ‘I will get this break with this guy’s policies.’
That is fine too.
Where that stops being acceptable is when with the break you
get, some other person is being victimized. Or when that candidate is
dangerously inept or morally bankrupt (or, in the world we live in, both).
I will support the candidate who is knowledgeable, who uses
his resources to bring people together, who tries make the world safer. In the
worst-case scenario – who at least appears to.
When I moved to the US in 1999, I chose to be a democrat,
simply because I liked Bill Clinton. I voted for Obama; well, who wouldn’t? (apparently
plenty, sadly). I voted for Hillary of course. And I was so sure that even
people who disliked her could see the thing she was running against. Wrong
again, though she did get the most votes.
I remember one of my cousins saying stupidly that I was a
democrat only till I became ‘rich’ because the taxes would make me lean
republican. I am not going into the economics of the different parties because I
am not qualified to make a judgment based on that. But I don’t need to, because
that is not a part of the criteria for choosing my leader.
I make a judgement on
WHO the person running is. Period. And whatever party it is, whatever your
benefits are, whatever your faith is, you cannot condone what that person presently
sitting in the White House does. God cannot be approving of that. God does not need
help to do what He wills. And we on earth certainly don’t need the hate and
divisiveness brought about in the last four years.
It is important that we have a leader who does not mock the
disabled, who does not talk like a lecher, and who can string together a coherent
sentence. This is the very basic necessary requirement of anyone standing for
office. It is not up for debate. It should not even have been needed to be
addressed. We have eliminated people from the political stage for misspelling words,
for inappropriate celebratory shrieks.
How much lower have we fallen that basic civilized propriety
needs to be asked for?
