To Remain President: Prove You’re Worthy

Four years ago, George Bush got elected by proving he was the lesser of two evils. Now, I fear, he is about to launch a campaign designed to prove that he’s the lesser of three evils. What bothers me about this is he could succeed.

When I was young, before I had anything to do with politics, the office of President was something to be revered. Though the Democratic Party ruled the country, I respected people whom I would not have voted for simply because they were President.

For an American, the office of President was the nearest thing to God. Ours is a country of individuals, and it used to be the President was the greatest individual of all. Now, unfortunately, it is an office in which people try to prove they’re less of a problem than their opponent.

I have known two Presidents well, Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and I don’t apologize for either one. Both gave the country what it needed at the time they served.

In the mid-’60s, what we needed was to get out of the Vietnam War. Nixon accomplished this and had he not become embroiled in scandal, he could have done so with far more dignity than we were seen leaving Vietnam at the time we did.

By the time Reagan became President, we needed to have hope, and he provided it. Now we need to hear about our future and no one will tell us.

Bush should know it is no fun to be President if you are just the lesser evil. He has lived this for the last four years. But I guess he hates to leave office in defeat. So he will now proceed to try to prove that he should be reelected because he is not as bad as the alternatives.

Please tell me, Mr. President, what you have in mind for my country. I will vote for you if you will. But you must do so or else I shall desert my party, and vote for Ross Perot--at least he has the experience of being successful at what he tried.

This is not an easy choice. I have spent most of my adult life involved with GOP politics. My ancestors fought in the Civil War because they believed in the rights of individuals, and in that conflict the GOP was born. But just as it was the duty of my ancestors to do something different, I must do something different--unless you can tell me your plan.

I don’t wish to hear what is wrong with Perot. I don’t believe in Bill Clinton. I want to hear from you. As President, you are the representative of our country, the person who represents a part of me.

The presidency reveals a lot about ourselves. Looking at it today, I would have to say we have failed. The great American experience--the proposition that the human mind must be honored because it is capable of brilliance--will fall to those countries that have believed that culture--agreed-on beliefs--is greater than a human mind. I don’t agree, and that is why my ancestors came here.

We believe in ourselves, and when that thought dies in the world, the world will destroy itself. This is why you must explain to us, Mr. President, what you can do--not what others cannot. The office you hold is not yours, it is ours. Unless you can lead us, you should go.

Some years ago, a friend came to see me. He had been in charge of Mideast policy for the State Department during the Nixon and Carter administrations and was writing a book about the continuity of U.S. policy. I asked him why we didn’t try to break the impasse there. He said it would have caused as many problems as it solved. I said, that would have been great, at least we would have new problems to work on. That is the American way.