In times long past the official beginning of the Presidential campaign season was Labor Day. That is, Labor Day of the year the election was being held. Now the 2020 campaign has been underway for almost four years, and probably sub rosa the 2024 campaign is already up and running. As always when I venture into the "Just Politics" tag I must preface the post with the observation that I'm writing simply as an observer of the American Scene. My own politics are my own business. Yours likewise. Everyone's upbringing, life experiences, dreams and fears are just a bit different and are worthy of respect. If you are insistent on such matters I can say that I am an independent voter in a swing state, hence one of the perhaps 10% of the electorate that in theory will decide the upcoming election. Political trolls and hacks, badger me at your own peril! For the record I have not to date voted for either Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden.
So. A good starting point would be my every four years "Want Ad" Help Wanted, President. It is partly written to help my UK friends understand the odd ways of US politics. Not that they themselves have become more sensible since my last edition. My point system for ranking politicians regards qualifications was and remains as follows:
Qualifications to be President of the United States of America
Have already been President once. 5 points. Nothing like doing a job to show that you can.
Vice President. Held the office once 3 points. Twice 4 points. In theory, but not always in practice, VPs are being trained for the possibility of taking over.
US Senator. Elected once 2 points. More than once 3 points. First timers don't generally get assigned to the real power committees. And for good or ill, the longer you are in Washington the more connections you make to useful people.
US Congressperson. Elected once 1 point. More than once 2 points. Same rationale. But our Congressional districts are so strangely drawn that it is possible to be a frequently elected office holder that the majority of people even in your home state regard as a loony.
Governor. Elected once 2 points. Elected more than once 3 points. This has traditionally been the training ground for Executive experience in the US. I should really go with 3 and 4 here but to be fair some states are less impressive to run than others. By that I mean no disrespect to tiny states. A bigger issue are states that are atypical (Alaska, Utah, California) or that are political monocultures where you never have to negotiate with other viewpoints (too many examples to list).
Military Experience. 1 point. I used to think it would require a high rank to get a point. But the guy or gal who is Commander in Chief has to consider sending our troops into action. Having once been a grunt would be a solid point in my book.
Significant Business Experience. 1 point. Often maligned but I think unfairly so.
Significant Cabinet Office. 1 point. Setting aside the question of whether they were any good at their job of course.
Other. 1 point. My place to reward those with varied life experience. I prefer being positive when possible. An alternative view would be penalty deductions for various things.
I think the system holds up reasonably well, although in an era when traditional political parties are marching to extinction we'll likely see every serious candidate - and all the Sillies - getting this point for something or other. Whether this is good or bad is a debatable point.
Since the 2016 election Donald Trump has of course increased his on-paper qualifications. Last time around he was a Silly candidate who got one point for his highly varied past. I described him as "A large angry man with orange hair". 2020 - 7 Points
Joe Biden is the only one of the candidates to whom I can't grant a bonus point for varied life experiences. He is very much a creature of party politics and has done little else besides hold office. Still, VP twice and many years in the Senate. 2020 - 7 Points
I feel I should include Vice Presidential candidates this time around. The odds of one taking over from an older than usual President look significant. Oddly the most on-paper qualified person here is the low key Mike Pence. VP once, Governor of very middle America state of Indiana, a couple of terms in the House, and assorted other private sector experience. 2020 - 8 Points
Kamala Harris represents the new breed of politician. Part of a US Senate Term. A bonus point for various interesting life experiences. But here difficulty relating to voters outside the very Blue ramparts of California does tend to show quite a bit. 2020 - 3 Points. Maybe 2.5 if you pro-rate the 2/3 Senate term.
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that none of these will end up as the next face on Mount Rushmore. If in fact we ever deign to commemorate leaders with graven images in the future. As to where the political world is going.....I'll keep my opinions mostly to myself. But let's hear a brief comment on the issues of 2020 from the generally acknowledged Great Presidents up on the Mountain.
George Washington on Political Parties:
“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
Thomas Jefferson on the media: (At a time when the internet did not exist outside of fevered hallucinations)
“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”
Teddy Roosevelt on Civil Disorder:
“When compared with the suppression of anarchy every other question sinks into insignificance. The anarchist is the enemy of humanity, the enemy of all mankind, and his is a deeper degree of criminality than any other."
Abraham Lincoln on.....Well there's a reason Lincoln is considered the Greatest President. He was a very thoughtful man and our most honest speaker. He had many things to say on matters of racial justice, preservation of the Union, the nature of mankind. But they were deeper and franker truths than the internet age can process. No wonder the anarchists who Teddy Roosevelt rightly condemned have come surging to the base of the statues where Lincoln calmly and I think, sadly, surveys their angry torch lit faces.
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Footnote. I searched high and low for any comment by the Four on the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918/19. Of course only the Roosevelts were around in that era. Both had it and got quite ill, as did then President Wilson. None of them said anything public about a disease that killed more than covid-19 and by devastating a younger demographic in a smaller population, had far more implications for America. Whether the weakened state of Woodrow Wilson, who caught it while trying to negotiate the Treaty of Versailles, contributed to the later carnage of World War Two is an interesting pub discussion.
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