Why did I decide to do this?

It is the best of times, the worst of times. And if that is true, perhaps time to try something different. Thus my decision to accept the position of honorary presidential candidate. And so there is no mistaken impression, let me make clear this is a totally self-appointed position. I doubt anyone would think to nominate me, other than myself, or would join in acclimation if someone should be so deluded as to nominate me. So I’m doing it myself.

I can only say in my defense, that the reason I do this is to bring to the forefront many subjects that none of the present presumed candidates seem prone to put before the American public for consideration. It is this lack of examination of perhaps vital issues, that causes me to put myself in this unenviable position.

I have had a little political experience many years ago and that is the reason I say “unenviable position.” I give full appreciation to all those who choose to be politicians. It is a dirty business, not for the thin-skinned, and places the politician in the cross hairs of investigation, innuendo and self-coherence, the latter a situation we are all familiar with, yet one we seldom have to answer to. Politics is filled with compromise, wheeling-dealing and spin. It is often based on polling, accentuating differences and catering to niche constituencies. And most of all, politics seems often to stop many of its mechanisms at the very doorstep of the office being sought.

That last point is the “kicker” so to speak. And it raises its head many times through our history. Who would have thought Jefferson could have come to compromise with Hamilton. That a stump-speaking Lincoln could have guided a still forming nation through Civil War. That machine politician Truman could usher us into a Nuclear Age. Their campaigns, dirty tricks and polemics do not seem to necessarily predict the ability of a politician to lead, to innovate and to be moral in the practice of their office. In many cases it is often an opposite indicator, as though they govern almost obstinately in an exactly different direction than that they practiced in their climb to office. And of course there are too many instances where the status quo prevails.

It is in the first hope, that I launch this “campaign.” I do not have to cater to constituencies, excoriate my “opponents”-- as I really have none-- and make deals to get me closer to some future moral purpose. I am a candidate unbound, who only needs question, theorize and suggest what should perhaps be considered today and in the future in the sphere of public policy, societal direction and hard, if not cold, fact. And I do not need to follow trends, set-in-stone policy and social presumptions. I can present the “other side”. Alternate presents and futures. Roads, in the poetic words of Frost, not taken. And I do it as an everyday American.
And what wonderful words those are -- everyday American. I believe it was in high school when I first thought beyond the American assumptions of moral supremacy and said a prayer of thanks for being born here. Over the years I have come to realize a true Light was born in this world in the late 1700s. Tindered and nurtured into being by geniuses, both political and philosophical -- and more importantly by common men and women-- this Light shed its searing brightness on creation of a new experiment in governing by of and for the people. And so far it has not perished.

Now there are some--and I have been amongst them at times - - who criticize, denigrate and damn the experiment. Age has done wonders for my angst. I have come to realize that the nation created back then was the “new boy” on the block. Like any new arrival, perhaps too often, we looked to our older brethren, the “established cultures” for guidance and example. I like to think it is those misguided impulses that have caused our failures in morals and policies. We “learned” from the big boys, the grownups. Never thinking maybe that the reasons they were so strong and old was that constant wars and political squabbling had given them longevity, but like the storm scarred oak, it was strength bent and twisted till the heartwood was of little use, either to the tree or to anyone trying to find straight planks or unknotted rail wood.

The recent neo-wisdom about Old Europe (or Old Mid East or Old Far East}is actually over two centuries late. And since we have taken so much from these elders, we may be the best advertisement for the ills which plagued them. It seems far too soon after we came into existent, we seemed to lose our creativity. We had brought forth a republic unknown to history, then we began looking around to find ways to make it work, not in the grand scheme, wherein our strength lay, but in the day to day practice of national power and the attendant business which sheltered under the umbrella of nationhood.

But enough of kvetching. Let me dwell upon the wonderful ideas that America brought to the stage of the World. It was formed as a group of revolutionary states, at war with the mother country, who banded together, despite immense differences, especially in who actually were human and citizens, and forged a nation whole cloth. America won that first war, then had to deal with one of the hardest thing any of us ever face - - self-acceptance. Now we were a nation, accepted by many other nations, even the one we defeated. However we were blest with a group of leaders who served us, created governmental structures and sometimes forced us into continued existence. Protean is not a word we hear much nowadays, yet it describes our forefather’s attributes well. Versed in prose, philosophy, mathematics, agriculture, history, business, music, art, poetry and natural science, our founders steered our ship of state across the stormy first decades of our statehood.

And one of the prime traits they possessed was forbearance, another word not often heard. It seems to me to speak of a kind of patience, a willingness to listen without rebutting and an ability to wait out even the course of fools, till reason and practicality could be applied to the situation. Men as different in temperament as Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Monroe, Hamilton and Franklin (naming just a few) were able not only to work together but also to compromise on issues held closest and dearest to their hearts.

They were also educated. Educated from both extremes, some out of an early university system and others truly from the streets, and streets meaner than all but a few of modern urbanity. And widely educated also. Speaking other languages, traveled in many nations, versed in the latest philosophies and sciences and always students of humanity, its history and its story and the cultures which it is made up of. If we could enter a room our founders were relaxing in, we might hear them discussing Newtonian physics, quoting Gallic Wars in the Latin or the Iliad in the Greek. So brightly did their education shine, mingled with Continental practicality, in their ideas and their creativity, that I often wonder if the various incarnations of our education systems have not been forged to make sure no great number of us ever again gain such capacity.

But enough for now. Suffice it to say I really appreciate being an American. And it is that heartfelt love of the people of America, that urges me to this candidacy. That and the growing perception that speaks of fear and supremacy. Two sentiments I have found in my life can lead one to excess and arrogance. I don’t wish to see my nation down either of those roads. Hopefully I can quietly and with as much reason as I can summon, change that course a bit. Thomas Paine is a hero of mine, in general, not in the particulars of his life, and I hope this endeavor would do him honor. He who was unjustly reviled and even his bones lost to history. So in imitation I “throw my bones to the wind” that their whistling disappearance might wake the Good in all of us.