What Makes A Leader?

“No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States”

And so the Founding Fathers laid out the requirements for the highest office in the land. In the simplicity of these three requirements, I believe they showed, yet again, the level of their genius. Anyone can be President; there is no schooling requirement, no required flight hours, no measure for what would make a good President. It is as if the Founders stated that we must decide those requirements, if there are to be any – that if it is truly to be a government for, of and by the people; than those people need set a threshold for who shall lead them.

In the history of our 43 Presidents, we have had men from all walks of life – military leaders, senators, congressmen, governors, lawyers, professors, businessmen. All have brought different qualities – some good, some not – to the Presidency. But I think we can agree that the best Presidents have brought similar qualities and characteristics. Among these can be listed temperament, judgment, an ability to contemplate deeply the complexities within the challenges we face, an ability to articulate those thoughts and an ability to draw the greatest from our nation while stifling the worst.

At this moment in our 232 years – at a turning point in the dawn of a new millennium – I think we need to truly ask what we require of the leaders of our great nation. If we look to the beginning of our Republic, we see men who thought deeply, contemplating the nature of humanity and the need for self-governance. They paid heed to history and knew the ways in which ideology can replace reason, ignorance can replace wisdom and how, seemingly innocently, tyranny can replace democracy.

Do we want a leader ruled by reason and patience or by ideology and rashness? Do we want a leader who asks that we give up freedoms, however justified, for the promise of security? Do we want a leader who cloisters themselves with a handful of advisors and closes their ears to the wishes of the people? Or do we want a leader who listens and understands the plights of Americans and does their best to adjust policy to the interests of the people?

Let us ask our leaders for temperance, reasoned judgment, intellect and wisdom. Let us ask our leaders for vision and for inspiration. Let us wake our apathetic society and mold this country into what we believe it can be. Let us shorten the distance between the world as it is and the world as it could be. Let us decide that at this time, in this election, we will face the myriad challenges confronting us as our Founders intended – E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One.

Yes We Can.