We Have A President

I would like to take a moment to remind the people of America that we have a President. We do not have a king, dictator or other form of leader. The President of the United States is an elected official and therefore a public servant. He is there to serve our wants, needs and desires. He is not a supreme being where every word he states is law.

The President is elected by an electoral college made up of electors from each state. The number of electors equals the number of Senators and Representatives from each respective state. This means that our representation in an election is equal to our representation in Congress.

Originally, the person that received the most votes became President while the runner-up became Vice President. In this manner, both parties were forced to work together to lead the nation if they were from different parties. This happened when the 1796 election gave the Presidency to John Adams and the Vice Presidency to Thomas Jefferson. This concept was changed in 1804 and since that time has evolved into what we have today. Now a presidential candidate chooses a running mate and their convention approves and everyone thinks all is great.

Unfortunately, is seems to me that the person chosen to be the Vice President is more to garner votes than to be a suitable person to run the country if the President is unable to complete their term. And that is how serious we should take the office. Now they choose someone from a different area of the country and with a political past and track record that will fill in the holes that the presidential candidate lacks. We now balance east and west or north and south. Older choses younger or vice versa. Conservative and moderate leanings in both parties are measured.

When we chose the person that is the face of our nation, it should not be a popularity contest or the lesser of two evils. Too many people even skip voting because they feel it doesn’t matter. The office of the President of the United States has morphed into a twisted office where the American people have stopped questioning anything the office says no matter who sits in the Oval Office. And we should question because it is our right and responsibility to do so.

I blame 9/11 for this. Not the actions of that day but the reaction of the American people that the actions of the Government in the weeks, months and years following those events. When the attacks happened, our country was scared and confused. Our President came on television and spoke to us and said it would all be ok. We were safe and the government and the military would take care of everything. He assured us he would take care of everything. Because of the fragile state we were in, we hugged our loved ones, sat back and let the government handle everything. And we haven’t stopped.

We didn’t have to do anything because the President and the other members of government were taking care of it and thereby us. We could go buy our houses, mow our lawns and enjoy our freedom because we no longer had to think about it. Our President was taking care of us. And with each successive person who has occupied that office, more and more of our personal responsibility of our lives has been handed over to whoever sits behind that desk.

Executive orders have gained a lot of traction as well. These documents signed by the President have the weight of federal law but have not passed through the legislative process of a law. Where a president can veto a bill passed by Congress, Congress cannot overturn an executive order. And this is where we run into trouble. Some men that have sat in that chair, wield their pen easily. Congress can cut funding or make attempts to counteract these orders with new legislation.

We are set up on a three branch form of government where the executive, legislative and judicial are supposed to provide a series of checks and balances to keep government working together for the American people and no one branch or person having all the power. Somewhere along the way, we have lost the original roadmap that our Founding Father gave us to provide us with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness we were all promised.

George Washington did not want us to have a king. We chose a president because we were fighting to get away from tyranny and oppression that the colonists felt under the rule of a king. This country began on the concept of liberty and justice for all. Let us hope we can return to that ideal.

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