What I want in a President

Don’t panic. This is not a political endorsement. I won’t even mention any names. Probably no issues. And I’ll include lots of pictures of Thai cooking!

I’ve been watching the results of political primaries as they come in this spring, sometimes with amusement, and sometimes with disbelief. Everyone seems to be arguing about issues! Calling names! Hiding behind soundbites! In other words, a typical U.S. presidential campaign. I look at all the characters running for our highest political office and I think, “Well, there goes the whole idea of being the most powerful person in the world.” (Used to be most powerful man, but I’m not ruling out Margaret Thatcher.)

I have to ask myself, “What do I want in a President?”

I am traveling around the world. I wish I had done this fifty years ago, forty years ago, thirty years ago, twenty years ago, and ten years ago. I didn’t start traveling seriously until I was in college. And then it took me twenty more years before I got out of the country. It’s hard to look out the window and see this and not think, “I’m not in Indiana anymore.” At the same time, I think, “It’s just like Indiana.”

So, as I meet people from The Netherlands, England, China, Thailand, New Zealand, and who knows where next, they inevitably ask about what is really going on in the presidential race. All I really want to be able to tell them is that I’m proud of my President. I don’t want to have to apologize about what he said about them. I don’t want to say, “He did this, but otherwise he’s a good leader.” I want to look at the person who is in office and say, “I’m really proud of the way he/she leads my country.” Did you know that every evening at exactly 6:00 here in Thailand, loud speakers click on throughout the country and people stand to sing the national anthem? Then the local village headman makes announcements about what is happening locally. “Someone took Han’s pants off the clothesline. Wherever you took them, please wash them and bring them back.” “The Thai military has declared that during the Water Festival (April 15 ff.) no sexy muscles will be allowed.” “Chicken boxing will commence at seven o’clock.”

Yes, I’d like to be proud of simple things in my country, like my president.

I’d also like the president to be honest. It’s been a long, long time since we had a truly honest president. I think it was Jimmy Carter. I don’t mean that he “says what he thinks.” I don’t mean that he’s “just saying what everyone believes.” And I certainly don’t mean “he’s a God-fearing Christian.” I don’t consider any of those to be particularly indicative of him being honest. I mean a person who pays his taxes, deals with people in a way that is fair, and doesn’t spread fabrications about races, nationalities, ethnic minorities (or majorities). When he or she talks about finance, it is with plain language and not mathematical magic. When reforming the budget, I want to know how it affects people currently employed by the government. People employed by the military, by the environmental protection agency, by the members of congress, and by the National Parks, are not inherently evil people who deserve the punishment of unemployment. Any more than 5,000 loyal workers at Microsoft deserved to be laid off. I want to know how we are going to get apples off the trees and avocados out of the fields if we don’t have illegal aliens to do the shit work that good Americans won’t do. I want to know how the employers of those illegals are going to pay reparations to them when they are ‘shipped back to where they came from.’ Do you think they’d be here if we didn’t need cheap labor?

I figured that after the actual cost of food and a little for marketing (printing brochures), the cooking class I took yesterday netted the five people who worked for six hours about $4.00 an hour. That’s assuming the master chef and the dishwasher and the owner all got paid the same amount.

I would like a president who has individual integrity. That certainly doesn’t mean he or she never makes mistakes, but that decisions are made based on the consideration of facts rather than opinions, and that mistakes are admitted when realized (rather than waiting until they are discovered). Even if he or she has had multiple spouses, lovers, and affairs, have those mates been treated fairly and with respect? If so, then whatever your religious feeling about sex is, it doesn’t count. Is my president abusive toward spouse, children, or employees? That is not the sign of a person with individual integrity.

I was impressed with the street market the other day. Hundreds of people selling thousands of goods in little booths that both lined the street and ran down its center for miles! I bought a shirt and a pair of pants. A westerner argued that I paid too much. The whole outfit cost fifteen dollars. But I should have bargained with “these people” who expect it. But as I talked that over with Janie (my activities host here) we said we’d never even consider going into 7-Eleven (the major grocery and necessities outlet here) and arguing about the price of a bag of potato chips or a pair of nail clippers. And that is just a faceless corporation that runs based on a specific profit margin. The guy I bought the pants from and the one I bought the shirt from, are feeding their families on the five or six dollars I paid them. Why should I ‘bargain’ for a better price? Even if it “expected”, I’m not going to abuse these shopkeepers.

I guess, finally, that the thing I’m looking for most in a leader of the free world is a person who has a profound respect and concern for other people. All of us have that to some extent. Most of us would do anything to care for and defend our families. Some of us would stand by friends like that. We can be excused for our little bit of caring and respect. Our frame of reference is limited to the people we see each day. We can’t have that limited a sense of responsibility in our national leader. The person we elect as president has to have that care and concern for EVERY SINGLE CITIZEN of the United States. He or she must have that respect and concern for EVERY SINGLE PERSON within our protective borders. He or she must he or she must respect and care for the people of other nations who depend on us, trade with us, compete with us, and even who would war against us. Every decision must be made for the greater good, even if the greater good is not the best for me or my family.

I don’t care where a candidate gets campaign money from. It could come from a million little people who believe in him, it could come from banks, political action committees, or even Monsanto. It could come from wily dealings with competitors and using United States Bankruptcy protections to his advantage. I don’t care where it comes from because I am not interested in a president who uses what people think of him or who donated to her as the standard by which he or she makes decisions.

Our next president needs to show that THE WORLD is a better place after his or her presidency. Anything that makes America better, greater, more prosperous, or safer must be weighed against whether it makes the world a better place. Any other gain is temporary.

I don’t think that is too much to ask of a man or woman who becomes the President of the United States and the Leader of the Free World. Sadly, what I doubt is that the people who will vote will care what kind of a ‘character’ they elect as long as they can see their personal pet project supported, can find money in their pockets, and can have a person who agrees with their religion. The President of the United States needs to be a bigger person than all our petty slogans, snappy comebacks, clever memes, and personal prejudices. Unfortunately, the people of America aren’t.