After the tragic end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, news articles about the mental health of the US president appeared. At this point, questioning whether someone is capable of being president seems outdated.Former president George W. Bush Former presidents are often criticized for not being smart enough Barack Obama Be regarded as a candidate with inexperience.
senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former president Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton And the president Joe Biden All were accused of being too old to hold public office. In addition, the tendency of inexperienced celebrities to turn their fan base into a voter base increases the possibility of doubting the suitability of the president to continue to be a common topic in political conversation.
Having a lot of social media attention or being a partisan politician does not prove a person’s ability. There is no convincing screening process to eliminate these doubts. Without the ability to comprehensively review candidates, we are forced to roll the dice in every election cycle, hoping that the new president will be competent and occupy the most powerful position on the planet at the same time.
In addition to the inability to accurately measure the ability of candidates, the unpopularity of each president caused the losers to feel very angry. At any time, half of Americans are completely dissatisfied with the performance of their president. Few people really support the president or the candidates proposed to them. Supporting candidates not supported by the Democratic or Republican party is considered potential. Spoiler voting.
This “two evils, whichever is the lesser” mentality has created a permanent cycle of underrepresentation and government deadlock.
The only issue that unites us is our common anger against weak politicians, and the inevitable fatigue of this mixture of celebrities, arguments, fears, and predictable political drama.
As comedian George Carlin said, “When you are born in this world, you will get a ticket to a deformity show. If you were born in the United States, you will get a front row seat.”
The characters appearing in our presidential freak show have incited the flames of civil unrest more than ever. They put citizens against each other to inspire fear of getting them elected. Although it is not a natural mistake for a person of prestige or a good reputation in a political party to run for office, it is worrying that winning on social media or an elite popularity contest is enough to become a viable presidential candidate.
Maybe this is us. Should we even dare to look forward to new and improved leaders?
George Ross/Getty Images
Perhaps American exceptionalism has finally come to an end, and it is time for this empire to decline as before. This is of course an option to sit down and watch and continue to complain about the periodic freak show that determines our collective destiny until the show is cancelled.
Although this option is tempting, the Internet provides us with a cheap but effective way to organize grassroots political organizations, which can improve the results of elections.
Instead of surrendering as usual and giving in to political affairs, it is better to look for a more populist option to find viable presidential candidates. Although we are very divided, it is worth doing our best at this point-not necessarily to find the best leader, but to ensure better leadership than we have.
If we choose to use social media for this purpose, social media provides us with a way to directly challenge and interact with candidates. Why not rely on and use this medium to give us an advantage?
A road map for successful social media candidates already exists. Instead of waiting for celebrities with a lot of social media attention or a series of unpopular establishment candidates, we can focus our political activities online to encourage more alternative populist candidates to come forward. Once candidates appear, the public can challenge them in a variety of ways, such as proposing debates between candidates, asking candidates to provide documents or records to verify their resumes, petitioning candidates to take a naturalization test, and even designing and issuing presidential aptitude tests for join. .
We can then follow and support the candidates we like because they promise to be responsible for our expectations of leaders. A large amount of online support gives candidates the necessary status for mainstream media to take seriously. This kind of winning publicity can ultimately make alternative, outside candidates competitive in the general election.
So, IMHO, George Carlin, maybe we can do better, guys.
Marinda Ragsdale is the co-founder of Mainstream Nation.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author.
