Running for President – The Cult of Personality

            It’s extraordinary watching the media coverage of our Presidential candidates.  Instead of an open discussion of the important issues facing Americans, we are treated to a political version of the Worldwide Wrestling Federation.  The 2008 campaign morphed candidate Obama into a new version of Superman generating impossible expectations on a promise of “hope and change.”  The slugfest, better known as the Reality TV comedic Republican debates, went on month after month with each new episode featuring a different player until there were two.  This notion that Presidents are the equivalent of rock stars with the expected morality of a monk results in disillusionment and despair among the people when we find our heroes cannot live up to expectations.  Who can forget twittergate starring Anthony Weiner or Herman Cain swearing he had never groped that vivacious blonde on stage.  In building these unrealistic expectations, Americans set themselves up for the great disappointment.

            President Obama seeks reelection under the premise that freed of the need to please the populace to win reelection, he will suddenly govern the way everyone expected him to the first time.  I am not sure that even makes sense in a dystopian world, let alone in today’s present balkanized environment.  As Matt Damon so eloquently put it that he’d “rather have a one-term President with some balls who actually got stuff done.”  When comparing President Obama with President Bush, one finds a striking similarity in policy decisions, especially when it comes to defense and national security.  That should not come as a surprise because Presidents can only set the tone of government, it’s the cabinet officers that actually run government.  In truth, the President is not much more than the face of government and one must look beyond the Madison Avenue face and look upon the real power brokers.

Gov Romney essentially offers himself as “nobama.”  He wants you to vote for him based on his Brooks Brothers suits, his million dollar Ken doll smile, and his promise to do whatever he said before because he meant it.  Here is a man who claims experience but cannot run fast enough away from his experience as Governor of Massachusetts.  Gov Romney does not do anything that might put him in a bad light, his words are all focused grouped, and the marketing people running his campaign make sure that he follows his script.  Unfortunately, he keeps messing up his lines and sounds like the real person he is, out of touch, part of the elite establishment, and completely unprepared for the Office of President.  Since when does running an asset stripping company make one prepared to be President.  What is he going to do, sell off all the Federal assets and outsource government services to the Indians?  Despite his handlers’ best efforts to rebrand Gov Romney, they have utterly failed.

We have to get beyond the messaging, the focus groups, and the linguistic hoop jumping that represents today’s media coverage.  None of the candidates have offered a vision for America.  None of the candidates have offered a solution for unemployment.  Both President Obama and Gov Romney offer half a solution, as for the other half, your SOL.  It’s unconscionable that our candidates continue to abandon the very voters they seek to impress and demand a vote for the lesser of two evils.  Evil is evil and does not belong in the White House.  When it comes to third parties, the pundits and paid media consultants explain why their ideas are too narrow or un-American.  I feel like I am living in some Alice in Wonderland story where the protagonists continue their insanity and everyone congratulates them.

As Americans, we need to move beyond the cult of personality that surrounds the President.  His toilet, while nicer, still does the same job, the President is just a person like everyone else with the same fears, the same longings, and the same disappointments.  Once we remove the superstar qualities, we get at the real issue of what we expect: leadership, vision, and problem-solving.  President Obama has already demonstrated his complete inability to provide either of the three.  Gov Romney has run away from his record as fast as a car elevator can carry him.  The only sane response is “none of the above.”  We need an alternate candidate that possesses the qualities we desire, one that is willing to go beyond petty party politics and tackle the real problems we face as a nation.  No one is perfect but a choice between bad and worse is unacceptable.

The biggest criticism of third party candidates is that they lack experience.  That’s a fair response and I posit that based on experience, President Bush would make a great candidate.  Another problem is that third-party candidates lack name recognition and trust.  Can a President who only delivered on less than 30% of his promises or an etch-o-sketch candidate really offer trust?  The final criticism is that third-party candidates spoil the vote and reward the election to the other party.  The best example of this is the 2000 election when Al Gore lost Florida because of Ralph Nader.  That is an absurd notion, Al Gore lost Florida because of Al Gore.  Had he represented his base and offered viable programs with broad appeal, there would not have been a need for people to express their anger.

Personally, I think the only way a third-party candidate can win is if he or she represents both sides of the argument.  To win, a candidate must represent the good part of both halves and leave the nasty parts behind.  Both the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and the Libertarian side of the Republican Party have great ideas.  Both groups have shared values that transcend party politics and speak to the national character of the American people.  Unfortunately, like oil and water, getting the two-sides to find common cause is like pulling teeth, difficult.  Here in Texas, we hope to unite both of these groups and form a progressive-libertarian party to demonstrate that government can be compassionate and thrifty at the same time.  To demonstrate that America can be a partner overseas promoting the cause of Justice, we support disengaging our troops from their overseas commitments.  Finally, a progressive-libertarian group would seek the elimination of corporate personhood and the vast sums of money that corrupt our electoral process.  Let us join together and return Justice to our nation, support the Justice Party of Texas and our champion, Rocky Anderson.