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?