Politics

This is being written before the results are in on the 2016 election. It is a bipartisan critique of voters. Time after time, throughout the campaign people have declared that they could never vote for XXX because of some activity. For the Democrats, they abhor the cavalier way Donald Trump acted with regard to women. Republicans, on the other hand focused on Hillary Clinton’s lying and other ethical failures.

This is not to depreciate the importance of morals and ethics, but the election is for the policy leader of this country and by default, the free world. None of the “never XXX’ers” ever mentioned any policy issue, whether social, financial, national, or international. Their focus was on the purported unscrupulous actions of one party while ignoring the failures of their choice.

If ever there was a case of speck in the eye of the examined and log in the eye of the examiner, this is it. And yes, these character flaws will have an effect on the ruling efforts of the victorious candidate. But looking back in history we see the Presidency rife with men who would be classified as unscrupulous (Johnson), womanizing (Kennedy), adulterous (Eisenhower), unrestrained (T. Roosevelt), and who knows how many other moral and ethical deficiencies.

But their national policy was the salient determinant of their place in history. Our voting efforts should be focused on ferreting out the candidate who will best pursue the overall interests of the country. The party platforms are the area from which this decision should arise.

It is too late to affect the outcome now, but one would hope that such “shallow” thinking will disappear into the past as this election fades. Whatever happens, the USA is “stuck” with the results of this exercise in representative governance.

We can only hope and pray that this will not be our last opportunity to participate. And even more that we get it right next time, regardless of how “lucky or unlucky” we are after we evaluate the present results.