Caveat emptor: Time to think about whom we want to decide our future

It won't be long before it is time to shop around for some new leaders.

Election cycles never seem to stop cycling these days -- and we are about to begin another round of politics ad nauseam.

But before the parties take over and we start hearing the spin, the finger-pointing, revisionist history and endless parade of promises, perhaps we ought to be thinking about creating our own little wish list.

Here are a few of the attributes we would like to see considered in the selection of the next set of leaders in Washington:

• Someone who puts the people first, not their Hollywood cronies or big business allies. We need to focus on real problems, and that requires someone who has met a payroll, brought himself or herself up by his or her own bootstraps and who understands what the American work ethic is all about. No more glitz and glamour. No more name-dropping. We need a workboots and plaid shirts kind of president.

• No more apologists. It is time to stop telling everyone, everywhere the United States has a list of transgressions a mile wide and placating people who want to destroy this country. We need to stand firm and to be proud of the legacy that we have left and the lives and freedoms we have protected.

• No one whose name has ever appeared on a presidential ballot. No more Bushes. No more Clintons. No more legacies. We need new blood, new ideas and someone who is not already entrenched in how Washington has always been. It is time.

• And last, but not least, perhaps we need someone with a little more experience the next time around. Youth is wonderful, but it cannot replace real-world and life experience when it comes to handling a job of this magnitude. Perhaps this is a time to choose wisdom over charm.

Is this the complete list? No. Will it likely change? Probably.

It's just a start -- and a reminder of how important it is for all of us to think before we vote. Our future might depend on it.

Published in Editorials on November 29, 2013 10:38 AM