5 Qualities We Should Look for in Our Political Leaders

We're sunk.

We're sunk.

Yup. What I was thinking. "Got any of those?"

We’re not going to see 5 out of 5. But if we stop voting for guys who are 0 out of 5, we might eventually get a 2 or 3.

“We’re not going to see 5 out of 5. But if we stop voting for guys who are 0 out of 5, we might eventually get a 2 or 3.”

Oh how I wish that were actually true. I didn’t vote for either of the presumed final candidates in the recent primary election, but as usual, it made no difference at all.

Now we are onto the general election, and while neither candidate seems to have even a full 1 out of 5, my conscience will be clear voting for a 0.2 to potentially keep a -3 out of office.

Although I get into political discussions more than I should here on SI, I take a different approach in my day to day interactions. When politics comes up, there are typically complaints about some politician. I like to respond that all of our leaders will come short until Jesus returns and then he will be the perfect leader. Then I have an opening to talk about our savior if the conversation so allows.

Now we are onto the general election, and while neither candidate seems to have even a full 1 out of 5, my conscience will be clear voting for a 0.2 to potentially keep a -3 out of office.

I think many "never Trump" evangelicals would agree. They just disagree on which candidate is the -3.

Yeah, I definitely read this and go, yeah so we choose Trump.

But a bigger problem with this list is that it leaves too many things out. You could make a similar list for the purpose of hiring a driver or choosing a surgeon. Certainly these are good biblical qualities to look for.

But, to compare with our current democrat party, you might also want to ask: Is this driver going to deliberately drive us off a cliff? Is this surgeon going to kill me on purpose?

Questions like that are not in this article.

I wish everybody could read this essay by Jonah Goldberg. It’s paywalled at The Dispatch: Apocalypse Not.

He is more sanguine about the prospect of a potential Trump re-election than I am, but I really hope he’s right. He’s definitely correct that there’s a tendency to overestimate the power of US Presidents. They have very little lasting impact on policy. I think they have a more lasting impact on things like the integrity of the office, confidence in our institutions, and our relationships with other nations. They may also completely reinvent their party, as Trump has.

So they are still a big deal, but not in the way many seem to think.

A salient observation in Goldberg’s essay is the fact that Trump and many others claimed in 2020 that electing Biden was going to be end of America as we know it.

Yet here we all still are… on the whole, not much changed.

Edit to add: Some similar themes: It’s earlier than you think

Yet here we all still are… on the whole, not much changed.

I think that may be true for mid and upper middle class people, but for lower middle class and below food is a huge percentage of the budget and inflation has definitely changed things a lot. I doubt there would be much consensus on if the President holds responsibility for some of that or not, but that is a substantial change for the poorer among us.

Beyond food, the cost of housing is a HUGE burden for the lower income folks. That has also gone up substantially. In some places lower income people have been on waiting lists to get into housing that they were willing to pay for, but the government (not the President, but state and local) has stepped in told them that instead this housing will be given for free to the criminal aliens. Although that decision was made at a more local level, the problem of housing all the criminal aliens (this is a legal term for those who are here illegally) is the direct result of the president's policies on our border.

These two issues are towards the top of voters concerns this election cycle.

JD, those two issues are definitely going to come to a head in my area. The prices of homes in my area are getting ridiculous. But on top of that, the increase in the Hispanic population is quite noticeable as well. In fact, at our State Fair last year, it was obvious to me that the demographics had changed very rapidly. Our area has had, until recently, a fairly stable demographic percentage of black, Hispanic, Asian, and white people. This year, at the fair, at least 50% of those attending (and maybe more) were Hispanic. I can’t say that all of them were here illegally, but the change from last year was more than obvious, and both my wife and I had never seen a change that large before. That’s anecdotal, but that doesn’t mean I just ignore it either.

However, if a substantial number of them are here illegally, with the price of housing the way it is, there’s no way this isn’t going to be felt here soon the way it’s already showing up in Chicago and NYC. Our services are going to start running out of money and available housing. This area has had a tight housing market for the last 20-30 years, which leads to homes here having been more expensive than in surrounding states, even those areas with a big high-tech population. We are in no better position to handle a large influx of migrants than those cities I mentioned, and they have way more income and population to work with than the cities here.

Sure, you can say that none of this is the fault of the current administration, and I can’t prove that it is (though I think it’s fairly obvious), but to say that “on the whole, not much has changed” means that where the speaker lives is a bubble, because here, quite a lot has changed. Don’t even get me started on what I’m hearing from friends who serve in the military about what regulations are now coming down from military leadership that are also new since the last administration (we have a large military base in our area too). And on top of that, “petty” crime (i.e. car thefts/breakins, package theft, and even some b&e) has risen here as well in that same time period. It’s obvious to any citizen, no matter what nonsense is being announced by those who try to tell us the “statistics” say otherwise. (And I attribute that increase in crime to changes in the way prosecution is done, not the migrant population, just to be clear.)

Can a change in administration fix these things? Who knows? Maybe Aaron is right and the president can’t really change that much. But I know that seeing what has happened in the last 3 years since 2021 makes me positive that practically any change would be better than what we have now.

Yet here we all still are… on the whole, not much changed.

??? Our border is wide open. But more than that, Biden has been flying "immigrants" directly here. Thousands every month. Venezuela says they are emptying their jails. It is horrifying to me that you.

In addition to the Billions of money we don't have that we have thrown away on a losing war in Ukraine. Our debt is probably soon insurmountable - meaning that we soon won't even have a hope at simply paying the interest.

I'm not saying the Republicans have done much better. I don't know how we quit spending so much.

And then the corruption. These trials against Trump are crap. That one in NY. Give me a break. I have built 2 buildings. This better be thrown out on appeal. Otherwise, we are now in an era where anyone who has taken out building loans is susceptible to capricious political destruction.

If you think things aren't getting worse, way way way worse, your head is in the sand.

Sure, you can say that none of this [flood of illegal immigrants] is the fault of the current administration...

Is that right? You're not sure if the flood of illegals we have seen over the last years is the fault of the current administration?

Biden says he wants congress to pass a bill so he can "fix" the border. People like me say that's a lie.

In reality, its a little of both. Biden could, as president, close the border and stop bringing in illegals. Actually, since he's president, he has authority over the border. So he can designate them as immigrants and bring them in. That's why the Supreme Court just blocked Texas from prosecuting them. The president has authority over this one. Elections have consequences.

So Biden is lying when he says he needs congress to let him fix the border. Except he's not - what he means by "fix" isn't stop the invasion - he wants more manpower so he can process them all for citizenship.

“You’re not sure if the flood of illegals we have seen over the last years is the fault of the current administration?”

I wrote that “off the cuff” so to speak, so maybe it didn’t come out completely as I intended.

I said I can’t “prove” that it is. For me, at least, the evidence is sufficient. There could be a number of factors causing illegal immigration to increase, but to me, it’s obvious that the main issue with illegals was the cancellation of all the policies stopping them. However “obvious” doesn’t work in a court of law, and it is lost on those who are willfully blind.

When I say Biden, of course I’m referring not exactly to Joe Biden, but rather to whatever group of people are handing him ice cream cones and putting his special no-trip shoes on his feet.

What I said above about him wanting to process these illegals as citizens isn’t stupid. It’s dictatorial. The obvious point is to increase census numbers in blue states. This is an attempt to import control. It’s evil.