Kids may want to become president, but parents will probably tell them ‘no'

Several weeks ago, on Presidents’ Day, my nearly 7-year-old son, Braden, told me he wanted to be president when he grows up.


At first I was proud of this statement. It showed me he was ambitious and was driven to be the best. Like him, I had similar thoughts when I was his age. Such noble goals helped drive me to success in school.

But then I thought about it some more. Why would anyone in his or her right mind want to ascend to a position where approximately half the people in the country don’t like you? And a good chunk of those people not only don’t like you, they despise you with a passion, refusing to give you any benefit of the doubt and criticizing every action you make without any acknowledge of the ones you do right.

When I was a kid more than 25 years ago, presidents seemed to receive a lot more respect than they do now. The detractors were there, as they should be in a well-functioning democratic society, but their voices didn’t drown out everyone around them.

Turn on any of the news channels and watch coverage of the president. It’s rarely unbiased, as depending on the channel it’s either heavily skewed against the president or heavily weighted in his favor. Neutrality in news coverage has disappeared.

Even worse, read online comments to news stories about the president. It’s easy to pick out those who back the president and those who don’t like him, as the passion of both is easily discernible. Constructive comments are quickly dismissed by both parties, even though they might carry more validity than the strongly biased comments.

Braden isn’t eligible to become president for another 28 years. The environment’s change in hostility toward the president in the past 25 years makes me fear how bad it will be in another quarter century. If I’m still around, I wouldn’t want to watch as people throw hatred his way, simply because they don’t agree with some of his politics.

This hatred is one of the reasons I rarely turn on news channels or read online stories about politics. The subject manner interests me, but its presentation has turned me away.

Reasonability needs to take precedence once again. Until it does, I don’t want my son to become president.

In fact, I’d rather have him become a garbage collector. Once a job associated with dirt, hard work and little intelligence, it’s now a well-respected and well-paid profession people rightfully now appreciate.

I would think the same type of appreciation would apply to the U.S. president, as the ability to handle that job far exceeds what nearly all of us are capable of, despite what some of us might think.

I gave up my presidential ambitions well before I got to junior high when I realized the amount of public speaking it would require. Most of us know statistics show most people would rather die than have to speak in public.

Maybe by showing a little appreciation for the president’s speaking ability we can start to bring some neutrality back and make it noble again for kids to want to be president.
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Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, March 9, 2012.