Sunday, December 28, 2014

The Peril of the Imperfect Candidate

It's all but a done deal that Jeb Bush is going to run for president if he isn't running already. All the signs are there. To pure conservatives, if there is such a thing, the sight of Jeb running is enough to cause convulsions. The big reason of course is that Jeb is not quite right. He has his good qualities, his conservative elements, but he is noticeably flawed. He supports Common Core and is far too lenient on immigration issues. Simply put, Jeb is imperfect.

I too am no fan of either Common Core or a weak immigration policy. But at the risk of calling down all sorts of thunder on my head, I have to raise a question. Since no candidate among the oodles of possibilities is perfect, which set of imperfections would you rather have?

For example, Jeb Bush is pro-Common Core, but he is also pro-life and very much against partial birth abortion. Given a choice, which of those positions would you rather have? Likewise, Bush is very pro business and low tax. If you had to choose between a more traditional education standard and lower taxes, which would you prefer?

This is not a campaign ad for Jeb Bush, but the reality is that conservatives are going to be faced with choices like these. Republicans - conservatives in particular - are not going to get a candidate who agrees with them on every position. There are too many of us and too many positions. So we are going to be faced with choices; choosing the candidate who offers us most of what we are looking for. Determining what we absolutely have to have in a president verses what we can tolerate.

Specifically, the question is: Is Jeb Bush good enough to vote for? Because, you see, he just might be the nominee. And if he is, Republicans can hardly afford to have a stay-at-home attitude on election day, unless they really want another four years of an Obama-like presidency. Because, dear brothers, that is what you are bound to have,

Unless you are willing to suck it up and vote for a less than perfect candidate. And that is the one thing you can be sure of. All the possibilities are flawed. How much imperfection are we willing to tolerate in order to have a better government?