Lead Us Not Into Mediocrity
By Jeff Alexander

In less than a year the American people will vote in an election more important than any other in the history of our country.  Sadly, there is no one running for the presidency that is even close to being of the caliber that is needed to guide us through the difficult times our country faces in the foreseeable future.  We are beset with deep problems as a country that are so serious that they will more than likely tear at the very fabric of our nation and destroy the dream of perfection that the founders conceived when they wrote our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. 

As we have grown to a nation of over three hundred million people, we have become more and more disconnected, not of a like mind on many issues—divisive, arguing, hateful, and generally unaware of the catastrophe that looms ahead.  We stand at an important crossroad, so important that the decisions we make as a people in the next few years will ultimately dictate whether or not we will survive as a strong, unified, democratic nation or deteriorate into a weak imitation of the great country we have been in the past.

We have become dependent on other countries for much of the energy to fuel and sustain our standard of living.  We have become an emasculated nation of citizens unwilling to make the sacrifices needed to protect our freedom.  We have become unwilling to make the hard decisions that are necessary to find a people together:  one national language, one honored flag, one moral ethos, one common belief in the greatness of our country.  We have become blind to the fact that evil exists in the world;  that there are those that fervently desire the demise of our country;  even the complete annihilation of each and every one of us.  We have become complacent and refuse to believe that anything can burst the bubble of paradise in which we live.  We have become fat, lazy cats, lolling about, unwilling to hunt, expecting our government to provide for us.  We have become lax in our civic duty as only a small percentage of our populace even bothers to vote for those to whom we entrust the protection of our freedom.  We have become a nation that for three-hundred years has shown great promise and yet now teeters on the edge of destruction.  We may become just another blip in history:  coulda-been, shoulda-been, whoops!

So who do we turn to—to lead us at this perilous juncture?  Who is that person who can turn us back to the path of greatness and away from the wavering, meandering, weakening road to mediocrity on which we are traveling?  Who is that alpha person with the strong will and personality;  with the intelligence and charisma to lead our people to the powerful unity we so desperately need?  Where is the Kennedy, the Reagan, the FDR, and the Jefferson?  We’re still looking.

On the democrat side and the republican side there is no one who is the cream of the crop.  Here we are, facing the most important twenty years in our history, and at best, we will be voting for a leader who lacks the qualities so urgently needed right now.  The party affiliation of any of these people is not what’s important;  it’s their strength of character.  John Edwards is a joke.  The only reason he’s in the race is because he has enough money to buy his way in.  Mitt Romney is another monied candidate who along with Giuliani has waffled on so many issues that their faces practically have criss-cross lines on them.  Obama is somewhat black, but what else does he have going for him?  Experience?  I don’t think so.  But Oprah supports him—now there’s a good reason to vote for him!  How about tired-Thompson or mealy-mouthed McCain?  Thompson’s vision is really tele-vision and he’s lost without a script telling him what he should say.  McCain has been wrong so many times on what the American people want and need that it seems he may have a hearing problem.  Hillary Clinton,  (soon to be Hillary Rodham, whether she becomes President or not),  has never accomplished anything of significance to qualify her to even be running, much less leading our country at a time when we are at war with terrorists who despise women.  Seems like right now is really bad timing for us to finally vote in a woman president.  Besides, who would really be president, her or Bill?  Two for one?  Forget about it, when it’s those two!  Mike Huckabee, Chris Dodd, Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden—who are they?  Do you sense a great leader among them?  Do you ever wonder why all of the above-mentioned candidates are basically throwing stones at each other on a daily basis throughout their campaigns?  The answer is that they can’t talk about their own leadership qualities.  They can’t because in their heart of hearts they all know what we know:  They are not strong enough or intelligent enough or morally good enough to be the leader we need to unify and guide us through the treacherous years ahead.  They know.  So instead of speaking about themselves and the qualities of leadership they have that would lead the nation to trust in them, they pick at each other in a very nauseating and childish manner.  They care not that we need a true leader to help us retain a free and strong America.  They simply covet the power of governing and are willing to spend their personal fortunes to get that power.

So the American voter is left with an enigma.  It doesn’t matter which party’s candidate wins.  Whoever wins will not be the leader we crave and need.  Our nation will flounder for four years under a president we were forced to vote in simply because there was no one better available.  Maybe we can afford to waste four years on a weak leader;  maybe not.  At the stupendous rage at which Muslim extremists are emerging with the will to kill all non-Muslims, how much time do we have?  At the alarming rate at which illegal immigrants are infiltrating our nation, many with an intense desire to mold our southwest into a new nation of Hispanics, how much time do we have before their desires become reality?  How long do we have left to heal our nation’s moral and patriotic decay before we descend into a morass of chaotic disunity fueled by dissent class-hatred and disdain of our Constitution and the American way?

Hopefully, we will not have to wait for a leader to ascend from the ashes of our republic.  Hopefully, a true leader will arise before our country explodes into a fireball of self-destruction.  Regrettably the current slate of candidates is woefully lacking.   SLV