Member-only story
What it takes to be president
Hint: It’s not experience, intelligence, or morals
This week, I’ve been monitoring the fallout from the latest drama surrounding President Donald Trump; namely, the forthcoming book by renowned journalist Bob Woodward and yesterday’s op-ed in the New York Times by an anonymous senior official in the administration. Both accounts repeat what has been said since the beginning of Trump’s presidential campaign: He is foolish, impetuous, amoral, etc.
And yet, over sixty million of my fellow citizens voted for this man, a fact that makes me ill every single day even though the outcome wasn’t entirely surprising to me. I don’t blame supposed Russian interference for the election results, nor do I blame non-voters or third-party voters like myself. I blame Trump voters and Trump voters alone, and the white supremacist roots of this nation that empowered them.
Regardless, I’ve been thinking about what it actually takes to be elected President of the United States. I’m not talking about the written requirements, such as being 35 years old and a natural-born citizen; a literally brain-dead person could meet that threshold. Rather, what does it take to have a realistic chance of securing the votes necessary to reach the highest office in the land?
