As the American Presidential Election moves into the general election phase, these are the five most important attributes and directives that a presidential candidate would have to espouse in order to appeal to me:


1.        Addiction:        The new American president must be free from addiction to any ancient superstition, drug, mind altering substance, or religion.
        Only a clear headed chief executive will be prepared to meet today's tough challenges.

2.        Sovereignty:        In order to succeed in the pursuit of any of the measures that follow, the new chief executive must actively enforce the immigration laws currently on the books. The president could do more to help working Americans by coming down forcefully on crooked employers who continue to hire illegal aliens.
        This action would strengthen American society all the way down the line. It would go further to help the environment than any other thing the president could do, by cutting down on runaway population growth. It would also allow for measurable gains in education and boost the average American citizen's standard of living.

3.        Education:        Once immigration enforcement was under way, and the population of school age children became relatively stabilized, the president should embark on a program to greatly enhance both the curriculum and the energy that goes into public education in America. Maybe Howard Zinn had the best solution when he suggested the country should "double the amount we pay public school teachers in America."
        This would allow education to compete for the services of many bright and talented people who are now going into occupations that bring resources to them personally, but don't have the effect of doing anything for the public as a whole. Certainly we would be paying some people more than they are worth for a while, but as new applicants apply, these non-productive teachers would gradually become a smaller and smaller portion of the teaching work force.
        A social structure could be established whereby teachers become a desired role model for young people to look up to, rather than corporate executives, attorneys, and drug dealers.

4.        Militarism:        American military adventurism must come to a close. This is an issue on which I think Ron Paul is completely correct. The new chief executive must find a way to extract American forces from Iraq as quickly as possible. There might be an argument for continuing to try to stabilize Afghanistan, but there is no reason for the US to continue to support huge armies in Korea, Japan, and Europe.
        A new president must find diplomatic ways to deal with international problems. The pointless exercise in Iraq has made clear to most observers that the days of military domination of one people over another have been relegated to the past.

5.        The Environment:        The American president must engage in proactive environmental measures on a world wide basis. The most obvious measure that needs to be dealt with first is global human population growth. Most environmental problems facing the world today are connected in some way to non-stop consumerism and the continued assault on Earth's resources. These activities depend on an ever growing market. Once human population growth is brought under control, these markets can be stabilized and reduced.
        Instead of invading poor countries with armies, America should be going into the under-developed world with education for women and family planning programs. Countries that resist these techniques for human survival because of addiction to superstition and/or religion should not be forced to participate, but their hordes should not be allowed to emigrate to other parts of the globe either. Their populations should be compelled to stay within the borders of the countries that brought them to the condition in which they find themselves until their collective light bulb comes on. At that point they can do something to remediate their own problem—hopefully by reaching out to the rest of the world for help and guidance.


        I know there are many informed voters out there who don't agree with me, and I don't hold out much hope for victory. Frankly, few people with the stellar qualities listed above would have much chance of ever making it into the primaries, let alone succeed in getting elected. But I think it pays to strive for excellence, so I'll continue to monitor the debate to see which candidate comes the closest to the above listed ideals.