When are we going to get really good presidential candidates who will represent all the people?

Question

I am sick and tired of all this partisan crap.This country is in serious trouble and we need someone who is balanced. Not too far on the left and not too far on the right. Someone who is intelligent enough to make good decisions for our country. Where is he? Or she?

Answer 1

We have let our government become too big, it just gobbles up any honest men/women. this is a little long but a must read! I will shorten it a bit but still try and get this guys point across.
How Long Do We Have?

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government."

"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury."

"From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years."

"During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage"

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years

Answer 2

Very good question!!!
I really believe the democratic party has gone down hill so much because the people they post as candidates are just way to far to the left. Some conservatives are too far right. Some more independent and central / moderate candidates from both parties would really help. I think all those who are intelligent don't want the job because they are smart enough to know what a huge headache it would be... (ie Colin Powell)

Answer 3

One: They need to BE younger. You can run for president when you're 35. Most of the people running now are over 60, or in some cases over 70. Two: Address the issues young people care about - the costs of college, loan interest rates, availability of good jobs, etc... Young people don't really care about medicare prescription plans or social security. Three: Address the Iraq problem directly instead of dancing around it. Most younger people are turned off by it, but those of the baby boom generation who grew up in the cold war support it more. Only Obama really seems to be speaking to anyone under 30 or 35. This is not an endorsement of him by any means, though, since he has his problems. Candidates would speak to the younger demographic if they actually voted. Because they don't vote in large numbers, there's no reason to really speak to them. They're more likely to vote for American Idol.

Answer 4

For your own sake and for the sake of the world I hope you'll get someone, but under the present political system it is VERY unlikely because plutocracy is virtually etched in stone. Outside a miracle, I think can only come when Americans wake up to the big con that's masqueraded as democracy and in solidarity try to get their country back from this very small elite who rule. A major obstacle is the media that is controlled by the same very small minority, and the media's agenda is to shape the American people's outlook in a way that doesn't challenge the present social structure.

Answer 5

If a completely centrist candidate appeared, would we recognize them as such?

Even as most people are moderate compared to many people in the political arena, I think they would recognize a moderate to be someone close to their ideology rather than truly centrist. Of course, even as I mention the 'golden moderate', I doubt it's existence as political opinions as varied as they may come would be discrete (if quantified) rather than continuous. This would mean that any candidate in the middle would really just be near the middle toward a side. The people on the other side, would thus, not see them as moderate.

Personally, I would rather have a candidate with a solid ideology than one that follows the whim of the people. Argumentum ad populum is extended to government through tyranny of the majority. Our government is a republic to avoid tyranny of the majority to some extent. The downside of following an ideology may be political partisanship, however, this is better than following the whim of the people.

Answer 6

Since the lunatic fringe of both parties dominate the primary and candidate selection process, I'd have to say "When h*ll freezes over". Most of the 'qualified' people realize they would be out of their minds to even try. Look at what we do to our presidents these days after they get into office. What sane person wants to be the person getting blamed for EVERYTHING for the next four or eight years. Only nutfudges need apply...

Answer 7

smokersmaxnickydaisy,

I believe there exist many good, honest people in America with the intelligence and integrity to accept the responsibilty of public service in local, state and federal government offices. However, it requires the American electorate to discard our cynical views of candidates who don't belong to 'our' party, whatever that may be, and vote for the best person for the office.

When we believe the rhetoric, half-truths and vitriloic words of character asassination that are spewed like raw sewage during campaigns, we should not be surprised at the people we elect.

Rather than suspend belief, we should suspend our eager acceptance of simplistic solutions to complex problems. And we should be honest with ourselves that *we* must make difficult choices to fix those problems - we cannot blindly continue to blame our problems on our leaders, when we are the electors who choose the very people we despise.




Note to Crusinthru,
Your impressive quotation is seriously deficient in accuracy. You should put down your conservative comic books and start reading a broader range of viewpoints.

Check http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp for an efficient disection of the piece of fiction being (mis)taken as fact by people too ignorant to be critical thinkers, too lazy to research and too naive to question where the Pied Piper is leading them.

Answer 8

When enough people get together for the common goal of nominating such a person. This country is in social and economic chaos and the political body is fractured. It is so difficult to get an overwhelming number of people to seek a common goal.

Answer 9

We had one last time but the repuglican hate machine did their job and discredited everything this fine man had done. Two many people believe the repuglican rhetoric. I really can give many examples but to keep this short I will just mention the swift boat thing. Here is a man who evaded the draft by going into the air guard calling the one that went to Vietnam a traitor. It really wasn't right they even stepped on his purple hearts. That was just wrong.

Answer 10

It's not going to happen because you need a lot of money to elect a president and those with money will always manipulate to get a candidate they want.