Finding Leadership Worthy of the White House

In our personal lives, we look relentlessly for others in whom we can put our trust. We do not compromise. A father does not see a daycare manager selling drugs out the backdoor and proceed to sign his kid up for care anyway. A man does not continually attempt friendship with a noted backstabber. Yet when it comes to our elections, we’re more than willing to let any number of personal and professional failings slide.

The numerous challenges our country faces today requires leadership that is worthy of the White House. Worthy of that 200 year history that started with George Washington. Unfortunately, we’re all too often willing to settle for men who couldn’t lace Washington’s boots. Men who espouse ideologies that would have been rejected as idiocy (if not blasphemy) only a short time ago. Men like Barack Obama.

But this isn’t meant as an attack on the current administration, although it deserves every bit of scorn it receives. Republicans have been just as lax when it comes to choosing their representatives. We’re just as apt to overlook personal failings, scattershot voting records, and hypocritical beliefs as long as the candidate has the right look. As long as they say all the right things. We’re just as willing to be talked down to.

The Diamond in the Rough

With 2016 just around the corner, it’s time for us to decide what we want to see in our next mainstream candidate. Who do we trust to hold the torch for conservatism? I think we should start by finding someone who will start treating the American people as the adults that they are. Someone who will dispense with at least some of the trite rhetoric in favor of original ideas that jibe with conservative values.

To his credit, Obama has been willing – on occasion – to address the complexities of politics. While that doesn’t excuse him of his many failings – many of which are at the ideological level – it is a feather in his cap. It’s one shared by New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. These three men, though they differ (sometimes significantly) in their approaches, bring a refreshing dose of unambiguous accountability to their speeches. That’s certainly one area where they far outshine the current president.

We need someone who recognizes where America went wrong. We need a candidate who understands that the federal government cannot continue to grow unabated. Someone who knows it will take more than superficial spending cuts to put us back on the right track. Someone who realizes that supply-side economics is not the “spectacular failure” certain Democratic candidates think that it is.

More than anything, we need trust. We need a candidate who will trust the American people and who can be trusted himself. It’s a rare quality to find in a politician, but I don’t believe we should settle for anything less. If we were to run such a man against Hillary Clinton, we could have a White House free of unrestrained liberalism for the first time in nearly a decade. If that doesn’t make the search worth it, I don’t know what would.