The Televised Presidency

The televised presidency has made the executive more like an actor in a political melodrama rather than a statesman.

When the founders created the executive branch they never imagined it would be manned by televised politicians who have more in common with Hollywood actors than actual statesmen.

Think about that for a minute.

The executive branch has become the main stage for bad acting and not the temporary home of a great statesmen.

And aside from obvious superficiality of this stupid situation there’s another problem caused by this defective arrangement.

The televised nature of the modern presidency puts personality preferences front and center  as the primary political issue that’s being voted on at any given time.

For the right this means electing a vengeful president willing and capable of publicly destroying old left wing institutions and figures. And for these voters only this personality preference matters.

Likewise for leftists they’re often looking for a presidential candidate who resembles the elite’s preferences: feminized, frail, and from whatever victim class that’s popular in the big cities.

In both cases this selection method is clearly defective.

Instead what voters on both sides of the aisle should look for is a president who respects state sovereignty more than television cameras.

Or even better voters could look for a candidate who won’t use their power to unilaterally impose their will on the American people.

Such suggestions, as with nearly any suggestion, would be better than the national personality contest we have now. And if the American public cannot develop a better way of selecting political candidates than it may be too late to save our nation from the perils of bad policy decisions.

Zigmund Reichenbach holds a M.A. in Philosophy from West Chester University.  You can find him commenting on news stories of national and state interest at his Facebook page Zigmund Reichenbach -- Commentator or you can follow him on Twitter @zreichenbach1.  Additionally you can find episodes of the weekly Sunday podcast (4PM) that airs via Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter at this link here. 

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