leogodin.net

I’ve been of voting age for 15 years now. In 15 years, I can only think of a few presidential candidates who I really liked. The first was Jerry Brown. I loved the fact that he didn’t want to spend taxpayers dollars running an expensive governors mansion or being chauffeured in a limousine. Mostly, I remember thinking that he stood up for his principals. Steve Forbes is another man I wanted to be president. I don’t remember much about him other than his position on major issues were very similar to mine. More recently, I’ve become a Ron Paul fan. I also respect (and often disagree with) Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, and Joe Lieberman. Paul, Kucinish, Lieberman, and Nader are men of principals and values. I may not always agree with them but I respect them.

In 15 years covering 4 elections, I can count 6 presidential candidates I really liked or respected. Isn’t that a tragedy? We have elections to fill one of the most important jobs in the world and we can only scratch up a handful of worthy candidates. I dream of a day when I go to the ballot box torn and undecided. I dream of the day when I have 2 or 3 good candidates to choose from in the presidential election. I dream of a day when the candidate I vote for loses and I can say to myself “At least we still get a great man (or woman) for president”.

Why aren’t there more great men and women running for president? Why are there not more great men and women in politics in general? We all know great men and women. We see them at work, at kids sports practices, at community events, etc… why don’t they run? I can think of two major reasons. They don’t have the experience to run and they don’t have the money to run.

This got me thinking. Why don’t we encourage the great men and women in our communities to run for state wide offices. Support them even if they disagree with some of our positions. Let them gain some experience. If they do well, we can support them for the US house of Representatives. If they do well there, we can support them for the Senate. If we started in the next round of state elections, we may have several worthy candidates in 8 or 12 years. Now I’m not talking about several conservative candidates or several liberal candidates or several libertarian candidates but several worthy candidates across the political spectrum.

Maybe this isn’t a dream. Let’s all start looking for great men and women and encourage them to run for office.