According to the rhetoric of the two parties in our country (and the presidential candidates themselves), they seem to think if they can just get their candidate in office, he will solve all of the nation's problems. From the national debt, to wars, to Medicare, to jobs, to healthcare, to abortion. They have the answers to it all. This struck me last night as I was listening to Romney give a victory speech. He said something to the effect of, "The fact that you don't have a job is not your fault. Your president has failed you. I will not fail you". We've turned the presidency into the likeness of a messianic king to solve our problems.
I've never understood before why the people of the Book of Mormon so consistently wanted to surrender their power to a king. Why would you willingly put yourself into servitude? I'm still not claiming that I know the reason, but it seems that for many people, it's appealing to think that a leader can solve all of your problems, removing some of the weight and responsibility on your shoulders to enact change through working together and changing your own behavior.
It is not correct to think of the President as the CEO of the country. He's not supposed to run the country. The founders didn't intend for the presidency to be that powerful and that is not the purpose of the office of the president. The president should not be the most powerful man in the world. He works in equal conjunction with three other branches, in whom is invested equal and representative authority of the people of the United States. If we think of the president as running the country, or look to the president as the solution to all our problems, we surrender our own power and we will eventually find ourselves in servitude to principles and ideals we do not agree with, without recourse.
This is contrary to principles of the Constitution, individual liberty, balanced government, local decision-making, and living our lives as ordered and moral citizens. We should be leery of the mindset that finding the answer to our problems is a matter of finding the right candidate rather than changing ourselves and our behavior. We are not helpless victims, we are citizens that have the ability to work together to create change, and first by changing ourselves.
Are we more concerned about our nation's national debt than our own ability to live within our means, save, and not have our own credit card debt?
This also includes being involved in issues that are important to our nation on a local level. It starts by going to your precinct meeting in 2 weeks. By going to vote. By learning about the issues and doing something about the ones you care most about.
"And he told them that these things (a king) ought not to be; but that the burden should come upon all the people, that every man might bear his part.
Therefore they relinquished their desires for a king, and became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal chance throughout all the land; yea and every man expressed a willingness to answer for his own sins."
See Mosiah 29: 16-38 for more commentary on why raising leaders to the level of king is so bad for our souls, and why it's important to take it upon ourselves to be good citizens.
Also, I've been thinking a lot about electability- an idea that seems to be swaying almost every person I know in making decisions about the Republican presidential candidates. I think electability is a misguided way to vote. It does not get us where we want to go.
He who votes for the lesser of two evils will always have two evils to vote for. Voting for principles of liberty is like investing in a real cure for something deadly. It may not pay out immediately, but if enough people start investing their efforts, their conversations, and their votes in its cause, it will eventually win out. Voting is not meant to be a short-term investment, but a long term one. Voting on principle will earn us liberty. Voting on electability will not.
Thanks to Jake Fuller and Richard Miller for their thoughts on the subject, which prompted mine.
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