By Chief Contributor Frederic J. Rohner
Why I don’t want to have a beer with my president–We’re about a year away from the presidential elections and ever since the Clinton-era it seems that the “media” like to make a big deal about what I like to call the “beer factor.” For some reason, it has become apparent that a large group of american voters want a president who they would be able to sit at a table in a bar or restaurant and have a beer with. I do not, in any way shape or form agree with this sentiment.
Why? Well for one reason, a lot of the people who I enjoy sitting around drinking beer with are idiots. Sorry fellas, but it’s true and it’s the reason I enjoy your company. The “beer factor” is not a good qualification for being president– the president of our country is supposed to be the leader of our great nation, and one cannot lead from the middle of the crowd, leaders must be out in front, engaged in the action of leading.
Our current president, Dubya is the perfect example of the “beer factor.” Although he no longer drinks (because of a series of “youthful indiscretions” which led to his born-again christian beliefs) Dubya is the epitome of the leader whose followers would feel comfortable with sitting around a round table in a smoky roadhouse. And look where it has gotten us.
Can you imagine feeling comfortable in a bar with Abraham Lincoln? With Martin Luther King jr.? JFK? Ghandi? FDR? Benjamin Franklin? Ok, maybe Franklin is not a good example, but then again there are exceptions to every rule.
One of my favorite presidents, Woodrow Wilson was not the “sit around the bar and chat” kinda guy, but he was a forward thinking leader who spearheaded the failed League of Nations which eventually became the U.N. and who, if he hadn’t been ridiculed for his 14 points proposal at the end of WWI he may have been able to prevent the disaster that was WWII. Wilson wasn’t an average joe, he was the president of Princeton, and then the President of the United States, head and shoulders above most of his contemporaries in terms of intelligence, morality, and vision.
So what’s my point? That a leader is someone we should look up to, a person who inspires so much respect within us that we would shutter at the mere thought of being granted the priviledge of sitting in their presense. A leader is someone who, through their intelligence, courage, and moral sense, stands head and shoulders above those they lead. In short a good leader is quite the opposite that the “beer factor” provides.
So when we go to the polls a year from now, I say instead of thinking about who we would love to sit around and have a beer with, we should really be thinking about it in the opposite way: who is the candidate that is so intelligent, that inspires so much respect that it borders on awe, that if we were given the chance to sit down with them we would hardly be able to speak but instead would be compelled to only listen to what this person has to say.
We’ve had far too many average joe presidents and not nearly enough leaders.
Which option does your favorite candidate resemble?
