America Needs New Rules For The Presidency

As we live through the nightmare of Covid-19 in the year of 2020, we must not forget the fact that we have a presidential election in November. Every election is important and, indeed, this one is probably the most important for all of us in our lifetime, as we make our way through the pandemic.

Trump is on TV daily with a one-to-two hour briefing on the do’s and don’ts of the virus. His updates move from ill-informed to political domination to arrogance to downright stupid as he revealed last week in telling the world that we should just drink a disinfectant that would wipe the body clean in about a minute.

He is a disgrace and he enjoys sparring with the news reporters with insults and intimidation practices. He makes himself the stupid president who has not grasped the seriousness of this global pandemic and contradicts his very own medics and experts.

Marie Antoinette said during the French Revolution to the starving peasants when there was no bread, “Let them eat cake.” Trump will go down in history, virtually saying during the worse medical crisis of our lifetime, “Let them drink bleach.”

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been shut out of campaigning by virtue of the virus. No rally type campaigning. He must rely on social media, and talk show interviews that are not conducted in the studio. We are watching the Biden campaign from the comfort of his basement.

The media has dropped him as the doctors and nurses tend to the virus and as the daily news provides scoreboard reporting on how many tests were conducted and daily deaths and where the country’s hot spots are. The governors take center stage as they report on their individual state of affairs.

The political dynamics are different. Never have we seen such a warped campaign and never have we needed a different point of view to the world problems. The medical community provides new voices, waiting to be heard.

Biden has gotten lost in the Covid-19 shuffle. Can he win this election? Questionable, because he can’t get the necessary exposure, as Trump rules like he is the absolute King. But Biden rises in the polls as Trump begins to sink.

Establish More Stringent Qualifications

What this situation brings to mind is the qualifications of the presidency. The president has to be 35 years old and a naturalized citizen. That’s all. Bus drivers, schoolteachers, reporters, designers, mechanics, policemen and firemen are more qualified than presidential candidates have to be.

The presidency of Trump demands that the rules need to change. Presidential term limits were amended in the Constitution to two terms after President Franklin D. Roosevelt won four straight elections. It’s time once again to take a look at the presidential qualifications.

Americans cannot continue to vote for a president based on popularity, looks, her pantsuit or dress or hairstyle. We have to amend qualifications from both a pop culture stance and a legal one.

Presidential candidates need IQ testing. Trump is way beyond his grade level in understanding the medical implications of this virus. He actually has advised the public to do things that could kill, sounding exactly like a snake oil salesman or totally deranged as his doctors sit behind him in a stupor. Power can breed monsters. Think about it. Hitler.

Presidents need to be required to look at about a dozen scenarios and asked how he or she would handle them. What would you do to insure a medical emergency, affecting the world? What would you do to prevent World War III? What would you do to relate and communicate to governors? What would you do if the country was economically facing collapse? What is your leadership style? Under what conditions would you close the nation’s schools systems? What would you do to improve America’s medical system?

These are among the questions that would tell you how a leader would lead. This is information we need to know, as we consider casting our vote. Voting has got to take on a serious note; we have gotten too far out on “personality” and money. If ever there was a time to take voting dead seriously, it is now. The questions of the debates need revamping.

We must realize that the powers, we the people, hand over to a “ruler” are or can be a life sentence. We are living in our homes like they are cages. The economy is taking a dive. We cannot go to work as usual. Education has halted. We are wearing masks, as a uniform, by political demand.

Some people are living or dying based on a political decision. The hospital you do or do not get to might be based on politics. The rulers’ decision is life or death for some. You cannot go outside and play or go eat in the restaurant, based on politics. The politician stopped the funerals and shut down the churches.

The politicians have the whole world in their hands as we face these life-threatening decisions. We have an entirely different reason to vote in 2020. God bless America.