Think about where our nation stands today--betrayed by its leaders, its principles of liberty undermined and denied both at home and abroad. The liberty of future generations, perhaps, relying on the decision you make about your choice of a candidate to protect the Constitution and to roll back decades of erosion of her principles.
Then pray that Divine Providence once again shows you a leader of uncompromising character, deep and abiding understanding of the ideas of liberty, as well as an understanding of the counterfeit ideas which do battle against it--whether those ideas come from ages-old religious roots or from Marx, Lenin and Mao. Couple those understandings of America's founding principles with an ability to so articulate those ideas that none can stand against that leader without looking foolish and/or vain. Merely calling to mind Ronald Reagan's defense of America's founding ideas is not sufficient, although it may be admirable. The candidate's understanding must be authentic because of personal study and assimilation.
Then, and only then, can we hope to select a candidate who can win the hearts and minds of the citizenry and lead the Republic back to its foundations in liberty.
That candidate, when the candidate immerges, will stand head and shoulders above the current field, as constituted today. It will not be by reason of popularity, as popularity is measured in the media. Nor will it be by fame or fortune. It will be because, as in 1776 and 1787, that person can so articulate the essential ideas of liberty that even those who have never heard them, will recognize that their grandchildren's future depends on the leadership of that person.
A reading of the writings of the first 50 years of American history following 1787 will reveal that such was the feeling of citizens who looked to Washington for leadership in that time of great crisis for the nation.
Excellent post loveliberty2, but is it too late? Are the principles and ideals that those great men stood for no longer of importance to our hedonistic, narcis'sistic, nihil'istic nation? More Americans can name the siblings of "Snooki" than they could the Founders.
Am I giving up? My signature answers that.