Letter to the Editor: Presidential elections

Dear Editor:

With the presidential election approaching, it is increasingly evident that too many voters are interested in candidates who will simply make life easier for Americans.

This is why presidential candidates promise voters policies, laws, and programs that appeal to Americans’ inner “easy button.” It is the surest way to win.

In the presidential context, the electoral college system awakened us to the fact that a majority of voters can vote for you, but it does not mean you’ll win, unless a fair amount of those votes come from states like Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Florida. This means that presidential candidates have to conjure up bloated promises that embrace the interests of as many voters as possible from coast to coast.

This is a sad state of affairs because it is unrealistic and it detracts from what truly unifies us as a country. We are unified by making specific sacrifices for the greater good in times of adversity and calamity. These are calamitous and adverse times, yet we remain separated by greed and the pursuit of reckless personal indulgences.

Presidential elections cannot continue to be about who can guarantee economic growth and jobs. We currently have a seemingly robust economy but a bunch of explaining will soon be needed on how much money the country has printed recently for that to happen.

The deficit is huge. There’s also a virus pandemic forming, ready to threaten global prosperity to the extent that politicians and the president could make the flu a scapegoat for all their fiscal shortcomings. At some point, a presidential candidate has to step up to shake everyone out of money-grubbing dreams and three-car-garage-McMansion zombie rat races, to focus on the real challenges ahead.

Think about it this way: When was the last time you heard a presidential candidate suggest we conserve gasoline? Responsible politics would require that every candidate support conservation, yet it’s an unspoken ideal. Americans do not want to conserve a thing, especially not the luscious “mobility juice” known as gasoline. We burn gasoline as if health-promoting fumes are coming out of exhaust pipes.

We need less junk in the air, yet no politician wants to go near the subject of conservation. Conservation has become anti-American and it’s slowly being groomed to represent communism. Conservation is a conscientious ideal that puts the common needs of Americans ahead of the greedy interests of a few oil companies have in trying to convince young men that $100,000 oil platform jobs in Texas are an excellent way to work so that privileged goofballs can make day trips alone in their giant trucks, muscle cars, and SUVS.

This election, vote for a candidate that knows a few things about conservation. Your health, your kids, and generations to come will appreciate it.

Dan Chantre
Downey