Angst over the choice of Presidential candidates seemed to be the agreed-upon theme across all news and entertainment media for February 12, 2024. Seth Myers and Jon Stewart delivered nearly identical rants in the opening segments of their fake-news shows, their shared point being that it is not up to the supporters of EITHER candidate to explicitly look away and NOT say anything about concerns about the mental fitness of the person wanting to retain or regain one of the most mentally challenging jobs on the planet. It's up to the CANDIDATES to quell those concerns to the voters' satisfaction. And it should be up to the PARTIES to ensure more new blood circulates to the top of the system rather than just "defaulting" to the next party elder who hasn't already won the top job as though it's their "turn."

The aspect of all of this that concerns me the most at this point is that this albeit well-deserved focus on two elderly men reflects a larger problem with our political systems and we the voters right now. Voters should ABSOLUTELY pay attention to the mental (and moral) fitness of any candidate for President. Voters should ABSOLUTELY consider the possibility that choosing candidate A over candidate B in ANY election might be more likely to require the country to go through a succession due to illness, etc. But we have a Vice President, a Speaker of the House, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, etc. and clearly defined rules for succession for a reason. NOBODY knows when they're going to go and the rest of the system HAS to continue functioning if one player at the top exits the show without triggering a coup or week-long delay in determining who gets the launch codes and Air Force One.

More importantly, if voters are making their choices by only paying attention to a single player at the top, they have failed to understand the intended operation of our system of government and failed to comprehend their responsibility to look at the entire chess board and make decisions about EVERYONE playing a role in government, from President down to local city council. ONE CANDIDATE didn't break everything that's currently wrong in our economy and society and government and ONE CANDIDATE won't be able to fix it all in one four year term. America has been creating problems with bad financial regulation, lax enforcement of anti-trust, wealth inequality, bad urban planning leading to sprawl, inefficient transportation networks and eco-hostile consumerism for seventy years.

Stop fixating on the king (or queen). Play the entire board. Flawed as it is, the current system has worked for 235 years since we upgraded to USA Release 2.0 in 1789. It STOPPED working as well when marketing techniques used to sell candy bars and Chevrolets invaded politics and succeeded at converting political choices into brand loyalty exercises. Neither major brand is working terribly effectively at the moment so stop focusing on them and go back to objective facts. Parties and brands do not fix problems. Individual people fix problems (or worsen them). Every candidate for every role at every layer requires scrutiny.


WTH