Guest piece from Dick Goodson, a Des Moines resident and former chair of the Des Moines Committee on Foreign Relations.
10 reasons to support a specific candidate for President:
- The candidate must be impeccably honest and truthful.
- The candidate must treat all individuals with respect regardless of race, sexual orientation or nationality.
- The candidate needs to understand that, if elected, they will be representing all Americans regardless of party affiliation.
- If elected, the person needs to focus on the poorest and least fortunate of our citizens and work to provide them with opportunities to succeed.
- On the issue of immigration, the candidate needs to understand the problem starts not at our border, but begins internally in our South American neighbors. Creating programs that work to reduce poverty and gang violence within El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras is critical for our immigration policies to succeed.
- For the candidate to be effective in leading the government, they must surround themselves not with “yes men” (or women) but with highly qualified individuals in all areas of domestic and foreign policy.
- There are many issues a new president must address, but in my view none are as important as addressing climate change and creating international efforts to change the direction of this critical problem. If we do nothing, or even not enough, the planet we live on will be in grave danger in the years to come.
- On almost all of the issues facing our country, there are philosophical differences ranging from very conservative to very liberal. Candidates finding consensus among the various parties develop the best solutions.
- For the country to elect the very best person, the election process must be untainted by any and all foreign intervention and the candidate must support efforts to ensure that happens.
- Last, but certainly not least, is that all Americans need equal opportunities to have their vote counted and the candidate needs to support those efforts.
These are my 10 criteria, you may use them if you like.
by Dick Goodson
Posted 6/20/19
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