The Headwinds of Any Presidency
We’re not hashing over Biden and Trump here. The subject is the presidency itself, and it’s all headwind from start to finish.
The first thing on the menu is media-sponsored ‘debates’
You know the drill, a network drillmaster sits at a desk in front of a dozen or so self-proclaimed candidates who take the better part of two hours slicing one another into bite-sized chunks. It’s blood-sport, a fox hunt without horses and hounds. There are usually enough of these to winnow out all but two or three by declining popularity polls.
Then come the state Primary Elections
We haven’t always had these. Until sometime in the 70s we had Party Conventions, where the candidates were chosen in back-room wheeling and dealing. We got some good presidents that way, men who got the support of those they would have to work with in Washington. Then those candidates, one from each party, would go out and raise hell with one another. But it was considered un-democratic, which indeed it was, and we traded it for …