What I want in my president
By Daniel Dick | Staff Writer
In these polarizing times, America needs a president who represents more then just one party or one way of thinking. We need a person capable of embodying all that it is to be an American, and not just one part of the whole. Both Democrats and Republicans can agree that George W. Bush has not been a great president, and all his failures loom over the White House for his successor to inherit. The next man to occupy that position of authority can’t afford to be an average or good president, coasting through the pages of history, unnoticed like so many other mediocre presidents of our past. Our need is great, and our next president should be great as well.
Personally, I think we need a president like Theodore Roosevelt to free us from the quagmire of these last eight years and the division that haunts our country. Roosevelt was a president competent enough to see the best of both worlds and possessed the skill to unite Americans through their commonality rather then their differences. He believed in capitalism, but he knew that government must regulate industry.
Roosevelt was a fervent supporter of American military might, yet he was the first American to win the Noble Peace Prize for negotiating peace between the Russians and the Japanese. He was born a patrician, but he still believed in the rights of the American worker. His aristocratic breeding afforded him the best education and he had a brilliant mind, though he was anything but a pretentious nerd. He was a virile and rugged outdoorsman, spending his free time hunting and hiking through the natural wonders of our nation- wonders that his executive orders preserved for posterity.
Roosevelt represents a leader that the moderate majority of Americans, people capable of leaning to the right or left depending on the issue, could agree with and even admire. That is what we need in this country, but I doubt we will see it at the end of this race.
It’s been a long time since a presidential election was not won by a narrow margin of votes. We are so fixated in branding ourselves or each other with the trademark of a group or way of thinking that it is as if many have forgotten our common nationality.
The last decade has seen great division split this nation, and it is my solemn hope that this rift is healed as soon as possible. The next president may not be able to accomplish that, but it should still be the goal he strives for.
