OPINION: Forget Politics, Would You Elect Someone Facing Prison as President of Your PTA or College?

PixabayPhoto byTumisu

We all have standards.

We as a nation are built upon them. To do the right thing. Be held accountable. Even being nice means a great deal along with being competent.

But at what point do standards not count?

At what moment in our lives are we willing to set aside the standards we used for ourselves so we can put someone back in office primarily because we are opposed to the other guy or the other party?

Yes, we can quote the other man’s age and say he’s too old to do the job. But then Trump will be 78 in a few months, just three years younger than Biden, so is age the problem?

Does anyone not go see the Rolling Stones or Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band, because all of those guys are over 80?

We can say that the sitting president isn’t doing a good job – but in that case what standards are being used to back that decision? What are the facts?

By all “usual” statistics the man is doing a good job. Inflation is slowing down, unemployment is low, and manufacturing is up with other indicators trending fairly well. So, if all this is not enough, and does not compete with the stats of the previous office holder then again, what standards are being used to make that statement?

Has anyone done a comparison, year by year to see who got more done or did a better job with the resources available? It might prove interesting.

And this doesn’t mean all is well. Our southern border is porous. Our neighbor to the south has allowed their country to become an interstate and is doing too little to control those moving through their nation.

Yes, some countries to the south have problems; are unstable, and are not financially viable enough to support their citizens. But their problems don’t become a global problem simply because they don’t have the answers.

Congress over the past six years has been anything but helpful in running this nation. Dysfunction is expected, cooperation is lauded as if it’s happening for the first time, and generally speaking the thresholds for performance are so low that we begin to applaud when all 535 members come together to not shut down the government.

So, both presidents didn’t get the backup they needed and deserved, but that is well known. Neither has had the benefit of a cooperative Congress

But today, as the 2024 election year ramps up, debates get national airtime and animosity continues, we need to keep things in perspective. Just saying your opponent is no good or is bad for America isn’t good enough.

That’s schoolyard tactics and while still effective thanks to the Internet and social media’s role in amplifying them, it doesn’t resolve anything. It doesn’t fix underlying problems. It just accounts for a serious amount of distracting laughter, unhelpful memes, and a vast stream of false narratives that hide the problems that are hurting this country.

Saying the other person is bad doesn’t mean you have the answers, it just means you want their position.

We need to return to those standards we used in the past and use them again to make repairs in a system that is rapidly moving toward self-destruct.

The former president is being accused of crimes across the nation. Not just his connection with the January 6 Insurrection but fraud and other issues that are serious by any standard.

So, ask those difficult questions. If someone was running for president of the PTA or School Board or the NRA (I heard they’re currently recruiting) and had the same level of pressure being brought to bear on them with an assortment of charges, would you be able to just set all those concerns aside – because the other guys are out to get him?

Or would you at least require the minimum standard – go and get all these things resolved and then come back? Would that be unreasonable?

Standards matter. It’s why drivers aren’t catapulted from their seats in large numbers anymore because we use seatbelts. It’s why most buildings in the US stay standing even during earthquakes. It’s why far fewer Americans die of food poisoning today because of improvements in food processing.

All these issues were problems before and then new higher standards were adopted.

Shouldn’t we apply the same standards for electing someone to run our country as we do in ensuring that a can of beans remains safe for up to four years?