Campaigns that Matter
After watching both the Presidential and now Vice Presidential debates, I would like to offer a glimpse into my ideal candidate:
What would happen if the nominee running for the Office of the President decided to set politics, rehearsed pre-written lines, patriotic grandstanding, and blame aside and instead decided to speak thoughtfully, candidly, and truthfully out of his or her heart?
Imagine if they took the usual flag-draped, telepromptered platform and said something like this:
“The responsibilities of this office are so staggering, and the weight of this role is so immense that anyone who doesn’t approach them with extreme humility and trepidation is most likely widely self-absorbed or in total denial.
The truth is, the choices I—or any of us running—make in the next four years could shape the future of civilization. Millions of lives and the difference between global peace and prosperity or chaos are at stake. Often, I won’t know which I create.
I am human, and I am MOST aware I am not perfect. I have my strengths. I also have my weaknesses. I can’t stand here and promise I will always do what is best for you or this country. I can promise that it will always be this country, not my political fortunes, that will motivate my decision making, and I will really try to do the right thing.
I believe in America at its best, but I’m also not blind to our failings. I think we’ve made many tragic mistakes. For example, I am willing to entertain the possibility that our assumptions about the Arab world may be as wrong as their assumptions about ours. My primary objective, if elected, will be to explore that possibility with them at the highest levels of government and in the most radical, searching, and unrelenting ways I can devise. I believe that the survival and well-being of the human race are more important than any group’s partisan interests, including theirs and our own. I am willing to question our foreign policy and the possibility of radically reallocating significant percentages of our GDP towards creating peace in our homeland versus projecting a force of presence elsewhere because I’ve learned “redemptive violence” is a myth and it never works. We must also finally answer critical questions about how we keep our children safe in schools, how we make our immigration policy both generous and just, and how we move our economy in ways that takes everyone forward. We have the resources and wealth to solve any problem we desire. But we must first curb our greed and self-interests. I will do my best to lead the way forward.”
Maybe some of you, some of my closest friends, might call this unrealistic, perhaps even “un-American,” even dangerous. Hell, maybe heretical. Most might say it’s political suicide, that no one could win any election with that kind of talk. I can’t help believing, however, that others would find it such a note of sanity, honesty, and hope in the political quagmire that they would follow the person who made it to the polls and potentially to the ends of the earth.
Dig Deep…Keep Going.
