POLITICS ARE FOR...?

FOR WHOM DO I VOTE????

I walked on the sandy beach on the Gulf Coast of Florida last month. My foot prints in the sand have disappeared. There is no evidence of my presence in the space and time. This will not be true for major office holders and those who seek the offices.

Political candidates and others who seek some sort of public recognition or attention, approval or vote, make speeches and pronouncements almost every hour if not every day. Time goes by, elections are held. Their foot prints last decades and centuries.

Where are the words the hopeful candidates or "wannabee’s" speak with such fervent depth of sincerity? What is the substance of political candidates passion or philosophy?

Perhaps we can look to history, to the poets and play writers, the historians and dramatists, novelists and editorialists to help us sort through the morass of political campaign slop. And we might even find help in understanding current expressions of leadership style.

These writers and commentators could help us see signs of future leadership behavior. Some leaders in our recent and distant past have become so paranoid as to make them dangerous to themselves and others and unable to lead the nation, corporation, church, university or kingdom for which they are responsible, in any healthy or productive manner.

Other leaders of our past, both actual and fictional, have been so riven with delusions and illusions of grandeur as to make them dangerous to their own nation and the whole world. They have experienced the laser spotlight of power and influence, have sat on the pointed pinnacle of notoriety and public recognition as to make them addicted to having their own way by simply issuing orders and directives.

Some have come to believe in the rhetoric of their own speech writers, the compliments and affirmation of their own lackeys, the grand fantasy of their own mental aberrations. And some have even been voted into office, as others have killed their way to the top.

Can we imagine, fantasize, postulate, prophesy, guess, wonder about the current candidates for one of the most powerful offices of our world? How will these candidates perform, behave, evolve, be transformed, conditioned, shaped or transmuted while holding the office which they so desperately and passionately seek?

What are their current tendencies toward paranoia, delusions of grandeur, abuses of power that corrupts, addicted to being "in charge, the "decider?"

Are there signs of what their future personalities will become after they’ve been in the office with all the crushing responsibility giving flavor to their days and nights?

Will presidential scholars be of help? Will historians have insights? Will psychiatrists and psychologists and other Doctors of Whatever give us insights and warnings?

Looking at current events, trends, possibilities and logical extensions of what is happening today, this week, this year, one can speculate on the next few months and years. And that speculation features the behavior of candidates seeking high office. We have seen recently in our part of the country what happens when arrogance, wealth, and what seemed to be a towering intellect can do to one who believes himself to be beyond the normal, accepted restraints of political and executive power. But history is replete with such shenanigans. And the future promises no improvement.

So, for whom do we vote, and why??? To whom can we go for help, advice, counsel or tea leaf interpretations?

Richard E. Lake