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The President I Want

By Michael Bernard Mitchell

I am so happy the election is over! I voted and I must admit that the more I researched the candidates and issues the less I was truly impressed. I don’t blame the candidates as much as I suspect that the general populace wouldn’t elect the type of candidate that would truly appeal to me. I keep wondering why the type of person that I would love to see elected would not be electable. I am not the smartest guy in the world, so I decided to write about the president I want and have others rip my thoughts apart and get educated.

When I was a UAW member, they would have these plant wide elections and all of a sudden people that I never knew or spoke to me would want to shake my hand and have me wear their button.

Tip O’Neil I believe said “all politics is local”, and I can tell you that even an election with less than 10,000 people voting is full of deceit!

I just wish that a candidate could tell the truth. I wish that a candidate could/ would say: “I did say that five years ago and I have since learned a few things and have come to a more complete understanding and that has led me to a new position”.

Why do candidates have to be without flaws? Maybe it starts with our religious leaders having to be flawless? Again I don’t know.

I personally would love to see a candidate that came from a family that you wouldn’t necessarily think that a candidate would come from. A person that comes from a background a lot of us could relate to. I would love to have a leader that went to a community college for a year or two, took some 090 classes and then went on to a state institution and did all this while working .

A whole lot of people fit this profile, why aren’t they running?  I would love a commander in chief that once was an enlisted individual that worked their way up to a warrant or went on to Officer Candidate School. A person who had a light come on and a fire got in the belly from being a single parent or having made some bad relationship decisions.

A person who has to pay child support or even better has had to deal with a lack of alimony or child support. I would find it easier to accept a declaration of war from a person who has had to leave a child with a family member or has been shot or at least shot at. A person who has had to be on a submarine, a ship, or a Coast Guard cutter, a person that has spent so much time in the field when they come home they just burn their underwear and uniform.

A person who has done a year of isolated duty, or at least a couple Temporary duty assignments, a person who has come home different than they left to people who aren’t even physically aren’t the same as when you left. Not to mention differently mentally and emotionally. A person who loves this country so much that they reenlist for more years of food stamps and working extra jobs or having been a surrogate so they can have a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and food for their belly.

This is the can of stuff I want my President to be made of. I would like a President to have gone from being on government assistance or income to have become a business owner. A person that has been entrusted with making sure that a paycheck doesn’t bounce, that has provided healthcare and educational benefits. It was nice that a candidate had some student loans in their past, let’s have more of that!

I want someone that has been socially isolated, that has been the one that is moving their family to a place that it has not been in the past. A legacy builder, a transformational individual; a visionary that can make a dream into a doable plan of action, we did have a bit of that in some candidates. I would like a candidate that has a diverse group of friends across all sorts of demographics, you pick some.

A person with a mind subtle enough that they can be won over; yet with a mindset that is able to thoroughly go through all points and counterpoints and appreciate both sides of an argument. A person that can appreciate that there is both an art and science to life.  Therefore, I am not against a person with a legal background because a good understanding of the law is highly beneficial when talking to lawmakers, but City Law School works for me and if it took a few times to past the bar, that’s o.k. too.

I like tenacious people. Might as well be a Certified Public Accountant since we are dreaming here, although there are a number of people who hold both degrees. I wouldn’t mine that my president has had some life altering experiences, has overcome some addiction or habit. I would think that representing people, it would be good to have some people skills.

I don’t really care if the candidate is an extrovert or introvert, just mature enough to know how to relate to others, aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their personality type and know how to  deal well with other types of personalities anyway.

It is my hope that above all things that candidates be authentic and at peace, albeit a hard earned one, nothing like knowing the ins and outs of oneself, so that they can stay stable is the midst of the chaos and crisis that is the daily existence of a President.

I finally would like to see the President have someone in their life who they love and trust. Someone who gets them and can get to them even when they are full of themselves, I just believe every President will have a least one of those moments.