By Jim Dickson
To qualify to run for President of the United States of America you only need four things – be a natural born citizen, have lived here for at least 14 years, be at least 35 years of age, and not served two terms as President. There are about 330,000,000 people living in the U.S., of which something over half could meet these qualifications. So out there somewhere there are more or less 165, 000,000 people who could run for President if they wanted to do so.
Out of that group, we currently have two front runners. One is a bombastic egotist who is a chronic prevaricator and refuses to let go of the past. He is probably the most polarizing politician in modern history. On the other hand, we have an old, worn out, political hack, who is probably senile and can’t remember the past, much less what day it is, unless one of his keepers tells him.
We can do better!
I know that the above descriptions are going to offend supporters on both sides, and I apologize for being polarizing myself, but I also think that there are many of us who down deep know that it’s true, and would very much like to find someone better. Someone that we could enthusiastically support, an election where we are voting for a candidate, not just voting against the other guy.
This not to say that both of these men have not done some good for the country. They have, but it’s time to move on to newer and younger candidates who will look to the future and not continue to fight the battles of the past.
I can’t recall a time in my life when we were more in need of a President that who could pull the country back together so that we can confront the challenges that we are facing both domestically and around the world. We need leadership not division.
We are fortunate that we have a few declared and potential candidates on both sides of the aisle that could fill this role. People who have, in my opinion, the experience, education, intelligence and ability to work with both political parties to bring about the changes that we need to get the country back on track. To name a few, Amy Klobuchar, Tim Scott, Joe Manchin, Nicki Haley, and, although he is new to politics, Vivek Ramsswamy seems like a bright successful young man with some very good ideas. Mike Pompeo, probably the best qualified person to be President, has said that he won’t run, but in politics never say never.
Another thing that I would like to come out of the next election is to have my party back, and I suspect that there are some Democrats out there that feel the same way. We have a whole generation that has never seen how a representative republic works.
For the past several years the far left and the far right of both parties have been in control, and the result has been stalemate, stagnation and bad government. I would like to see a return to a system where a strong and capable President presents a budget to Congress and they have time to analyze the proposed budget, debate, find consensuses and come up with a workable solution. To return to regular order where bills are presented, sent to committee, debated and understood and then brought to the floor for a vote up or down.
I would like to see reasonable people return to power on both sides of the aisle. Not so much for an old guy like myself, because, like Biden and Trump, my day has passed. But for our kids and grandkids, who I hope will have the same opportunity that we have had to make a successful life in this wonderful country. To make this happen we can’t continue down the road that we are now on; we need new leadership, new ideas, and a new beginning, not only in the Presidency, but in Congress as well and especially the Senate.
Born, raised and educated in the Southwest, Jim Dickson served in the U.S. Navy Reserve in Vietnam before a 35-year business career. Retired to St. Helena Island, Dickson and his wife are fiscally conservative, socially moderate and active in Republican politics, though they may not always agree with Republicans. Having lived around the country and traveled around the world, Dickson believes that the United States truly is the land of opportunity.
