Philosophy

A moody person like me should avoid following presidential politics as much as I can. It makes me depressed, for the one I consider good seems to be losing ground and, being an insignificant citizen, I only have one vote and my voice isn’t loud enough to rise above all the cacophony of liberalism spewed out by mainstream media and pompous Hollywood types.

“People will vote with their pocketbook,” my wife told me. She is right. When the economy is bad, voters will always choose a person who they think can safely guide the nation out of recession and the preconceived notion is that one party’s nominee is better in doing so than the other. The polling data seems to indicate that. How do we choose a leader for this great nation? Should we base our choice on pragmatic matters such as economic issues or other practical concerns? Perhaps we should turn to one of the most intelligent persons in the previous century for an answer concerning this. G.K. Chesterton wrote in one of his essays from Heretic: “But there are some people, nevertheless - and I am one of them - who think that the most practical and important thing about a man is still his view of the universe. We think that for a landlady considering a lodger, it is important to know his income, but still more important to know his philosophy.”

Shouldn’t we pay more attention to a presidential candidate’s world and life view than his ability to boost the economy or national security?