I,
Drew Kopf, am Running for President; and here is what I ask:
What are
we looking for in our President?
Is he or
she supposed to be cute looking or handsome or stately looking, or can they
be plain people, with any of the normal flaws and shortcomings like being
somewhat overweight or bald or wear glasses?
Should he
or she be exceedingly bright with a very high intelligence quotient or can
they be regular people with a certain amount of common sense, a healthy degree
of skepticism and the necessary tenacity to find out what is at the bottom
of things when decisions need to be made?
Does the
President of the United States have to be a millionaire? Is it our belief
that rich means worthy? Does the ability to pound us over the head with endless
advertising, and to set before us a book explaining who they are and in what
they believe and to manufacture for themselves a following and an image that
seemingly comes from out of nowhere with the help of professionals who know
just how to do that; is that the kind of person we need and want to have as
our President? Or, is that the kind of person from whom we should run?
Must the
leader of our country be as squeaky clean as can be, or are we willing to
accept a person with a somewhat checkered past as long as we can see that
he or she is true to a trust and willing and able to do what we need and want
them to do for us and for our families and friends and all people who live
in our great country and who share our allegiance to it?
Do we have
to have a dyed-in-the-wool politician who has risen through the ranks to Governor,
Congressional Representative or Senator, or can we lift one of our own to
the highest office in the land from the ranks of real life; a person who knows
what is going on by moving daily through the highways and byways without the
benefit of drivers or assistants, by working hard for every dollar he or she
earns, by dealing with government agencies and the public servants who work
in them directly and not through agents or helpers; who gets treated in regular
hospitals by doctors and nurses and dentists with or without the benefits
of insurance coverage, who knows our schools and colleges and universities
and the professionals in our lives such as teachers, police officers, lawyers,
accountants, clergy people and who knows what our citizenry faces by just
trying to get by?
Does the
President of the United States have to be a product of our political party
system, or, for that matter, must he evem be a member of one of the political
parties?
Is the President
expected to have all the answers to all of the questions? Is he or she supposed
to be up on every topic there is or current on all the facts of every issue
of his or her day, or will we, as an electorate, accept that our leader will
be able to have before him or herself the details of any issue and the options
and the ramifications of every possible solution regarding that issue in short
order, without having to act like a vending machine ready to dispense answers
like bars of candy filled with sweet-sounding helpings of instant gratification
to a public supposedly starving for them? And, is that supposed public really
starving for such answers or is it the voice of the media that we hear supposedly
speaking on behalf of the public and demanding that a Presidential “want-to-be”
be ready to spew forth with perfect sound bites and cogent responses or be
ready to be vilified for being inept, unprepared and non-Presidential if he
or she does not?
Does our
way of zeroing in on the right person to serve as President have to be as
it has been or can we get it to evolve into something better. Or, are we really
happy with the system as it is? Are the critics of the system full of hot
air, or is our system really in need of change at all? Does everyone who bemoans
the fact that “You can't fight city hall” also believe that their
vote won’t matter? Is it possible that the system is just fine as it
is and that all that really needs to be done to fix it is to really put it
to use as it exits?
Could not
an independent person, that is a non-party affiliated person, be elected to
the Presidency? Couldn’t a rising tide of similarly unaffiliated people
with the right to vote find a way to cast their votes for one of their own
rather than for the lesser of two evils as presented by the political parties?
Just how many people would it take to vote like that and, in doing so, to
turn this system into the winning system it really is or could be?
If you were
convinced that I, Drew Kopf, would make an effective and worthy President,
would you be willing to put your vote on the line and find a way to cast it
that way? That is what I ask.
A
call to Public Relations Experts in Training
