Volume 8, Issue 39
The public is faced with an interesting proposition. The most recent NBC national survey published two days ago purports amazing conflicts. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump have higher negatives than positives. Joe Biden is disliked by 45% of the American public and found favorable by 39%. President Trump’s negatives are 52% to 40% positive. These numbers are not yet as bad for the candidates as in 2016. Then, on election eve, President Trump’s negatives were 66% and Hillary Clinton’s were 67%. Therefore, in choosing a candidate, the public is conditioned to look past whether they like them as individuals.
Joe Biden holds substantial leads in the electorate on the issues of who can better heal race relations, who can unify the country, who is better prepared to address healthcare, and who is best positioned to lead on foreign policy. President Trump holds a substantial lead over Biden on who can best handle the economy and who is better positioned to address crime. These differences of opinion dividing the American public are actually not unusual. What is unprecedented is the public’s opinion on this question: who do you believe has the physical and mental qualities needed to be President? President Trump leads on this question 39% to 37%. The incredible labyrinth of conflicting emotions resulting in cross-currents of determining principles leaves the public with an onerous decision-making task.
Through all the negative attacks, through the extraordinary circumstances facing our country this year, the American public finds themselves in a quandary of possibly supporting a person they do not like and a leader they feel is wanting in physical and mental qualities.
On the ballot question, among likely voters, Vice President Biden holds a substantial lead over President Trump by 51% to 42%. How then are voters making their decision? They are beginning to think through personally what they believe in principle. They are analyzing two candidates in which they see major flaws, projecting what each candidate’s Administration may in fact render in reality for their desired hopes for the future.
God Bless the American people for believing in, and adhering to, principles incumbent to their definition of truth. They are relying upon themselves, their own families, and their friends to determine the basis of the relationship between citizen and government critical to the facilitation of both.
In the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were bitterly deadlocked in the electoral college. Prior to the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, presidential electors cast a singular ballot for both President and Vice President. The Founding Fathers had not provided for what George Washington feared. That political parties and their ideological partisan strength would generate such division in the election process. The decision on the election was sent to the U.S. House of Representatives. Aaron Burr was supported by the Federalists as a compromise candidate against Thomas Jefferson. Each state had one vote to cast. Again, the process was deadlocked. Nine states were required to win. Thomas Jefferson received eight, Aaron Burr six, with two abstaining or non-voting.
It took 36 ballots and seven days before the House came to a decision. Members of the House of Representatives and leaders of both political parties agreed that a constitutional crisis existed and the country was about to be torn apart at the seams. Rather than allow that to happen, they sought and committed to The 51% Solution. That proposition was more important for the general good than maintaining power for a partisan reason. A solution that 51% of the public could support. Thomas Jefferson became President. The country was saved. And political parties survived to fight another day.
In his inaugural speech, Thomas Jefferson offered these words, “Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”
In this admonition, Jefferson was humble and gracious in accepting the Presidency. He knew that his political opponents had sacrificed their power for the good of the republic. The Federalists, in at least one context, also realized that, in a republic truly of the people, political power is never permanent. For the true political power rests with the people.
The election for President of the United States is in thirty-five days. The question to ask in watching the debate tonight is not which candidate met or exceeded expectations. The proper question for each of us to ask is: which candidate, regardless of flaws and irrespective of partisan noise, best represents the greatest potential to advance the principles in which we believe? To properly evaluate the answer to this question, each of us must carefully reflect, determine, and commit to principles that define our own character, not the candidate’s.
For, in the collective wisdom of the citizens is the definition of The 51% Solution that holds us as brethren of the same principle.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?