Digitally Born

I would like to share with you my thoughts on the best presidential candidate and, following those thoughts, why I feel as though no candidate stacks up.

I think I am an optimist. I like to think to most of people. I like to believe that people are kind, gracious and intelligent. Maybe I have high standards and that’s why I’m often disappointed.

I want a leader for the people. Someone who will strike that holiest of balances and find what’s right for the majority without sacrificing the minorities. Someone who is open and true. Someone who believes in freedom. Not the kind of freedom that you read about on a bumper sticker, but real freedom. The freedom that allows us to be who we are, without apologies. To be proud of who we are, despite our differences. A champion. I want someone who can be honest enough to state his beliefs, but, in the same breath, put those beliefs aside for the greater good.



I don’t care what this leader looks like. I don’t care what they believe. I don’t care what his personal preference or opinion is or how they feel about immigration or the war or abortion or gay marriage rights. I care that they are intelligent enough, humble enough and kind enough to look past all of those opinions and see what is really best for our country and its people. Someone who can honestly look across this once great land and see its potential to again be great and with a determined cry charge forward.

They need to be courageous enough to look the public in the (collective) eye and speak the truth. To level with us. Tell us the good and bad news. Let us know what his plan is to right the wrongs, accept fault (his and others) and despite the ups and downs be unwavering in his dedication to what is good, not only for me personally, but for my neighbors, my family, my friends and everyone else.

I fear, however, that if someone during a presidential debate were to stand there and say out loud, “I believe X, but I would probably go with Y because that’s better for everyone” would shock me. I fear I wouldn’t believe him, no matter how much I want to and I fear that no one else would either.

I hate it when people speak of societies problems. Usually these are crude, uninformed, and offhanded observations rarely based in reality, but here I will make that mistake. I think it is a flaw of our society that each one of us, myself included, is so self-serving that we feel that a leader should mirror our exact personal feelings. The thought, “If it isn’t what I think is right, then it isn’t right” is appalling to me, but I have that thought.

Our society has grown into a festering pool of opinionated people who demand that his way is the right way. A people who will turn their head from injustice when they aren’t the victim, yet demand vengeance when they are. A people who put no thought into the existence of others. No thought into what is beyond the horizon. No sense of community.

I digress.

Does a good leader really have to mirror how I feel about immigration? Or could I be happy with a decision that is made after extensive research, thought and discussion and found to benefit the country the most? Could you?

I think we need an open leader. Not only open to new ideas even if those ideas are against his ideologies, but open to the public. Approachable. Humble enough to recognize when someone, even outside of his cabinet, his party or even his country, knows more, listen to their reason and make a rational, informed decision while weighing the probable outcomes.

Above all else, I want a president who can understand the nuances of our constitution. One who understands the duress under which it was written and signed, what its fundamental ideals are and who can use those ideals as the backbone of his leadership.

I am not afraid of that president. I am not intimidated by him. I am humbled and awestruck. I would stand before the president and can honestly tell him that I trust him. I trust him to represent not only myself, but this country that I love. This country that means so much to so many. The country that is built upon refugees fleeing bondage and persecution. I trust him to make the best of his time, to rock the boat if it needs it, to know when it needs it, to show loyalty, but not stubbornness and to save us from ourselves.