Last month, in response to a comment that:
more often than not it seems the only choice we have in our candidates is a choice between horrible and horrible.
I wrote back saying:
That means that you need to get in earlier in the process – before there are only two candidates left – because I agree that neither hanging nor the firing squad sound very appealing. Of course it’s possible to have more than two candidates and still have nobody who does not look like either a gallows, a firing squad, or a lethal injection chamber. . . In such cases we have to work as voters to encourage better candidates to get in the race. Long term we even have the option to plan ahead and run for office ourselves if we consistently cannot get decent choices. (emphasis added)
My goal in politics is to help illuminate current issues with timeless principles so that I and other will be able to recognize and support (and become when necessary) the kind of high quality candidates that are required to put this country back on the solid footing that it once enjoyed.
As my wife can attest, I am absolutely serious about that last part. Having seen many candidates for important office that I felt were unable to act as the kind of legislator that I am looking for, I have had many discussions publicly and privately about running for various offices. Last night I was talking to my wife about this and I finally was able to state my political goals succinctly – my goal generally is to put myself in a position where I can run for any office where there is no acceptable candidate and my goal for any given race is to find a good candidate that I can support – using myself as the candidate of last resort.
I would consider myself extremely successful politically if I always found solid candidates to support and never felt the need to run myself – especially if the candidates I supported won in most cases. Despite that definition of success I am preparing so that if I ever find myself unable to identify a quality candidate I can and will step in and run an effective campaign with a better than average chance of winning. (Evidence of my preparing is that I already own a campaign domain that I can use anytime I find it necessary to run and as I have time available I am working on developing that site in advance so that all I have to do is develop some graphics and campaign/office specific material in order to launch an effective campaign.)
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