We are tasked with casting an individual vote to democratically elect the next President of the United States. This next man will be the leader, and decision maker of the most powerful nation, with the most influential ideology in the world. This process that we are in places the burden of that service on one man has grown beyond partisan politics and beliefs. It has come down to core ethics, personal values, and the belief that although a man sworn to represent his constituents will abide by the will of those people, he will, in his darkest hour revert to what he believes to be right. It is this man’s character that will guide him to decisions that will hold this one man personally responsible; yet impact far beyond the borders of this great nation.

While I originally thought that patriotism was the divining rod for choosing the next president, it is indeed more than that. But, it is still the foundation of what must be encompassed by one man. Patriotism to understand that the office of the President is much larger than one man can possibly be expected to fulfill, yet he must try. Failure is built into the role if all responsibility is laid solely on his shoulders. So, it is true that a president has relied on his party to help him when needed, but in the darkest hours, his party won’t be there for him; his cabinet can only advise. It will be the courage that lives in his soul that will be his only true council. His life will be his guide, experiences, teachings, people, family, and faith will be all that he has to rely on in those moments. A man is made up of the sum of all the parts of his life, yet can only be judged by his actions, good and bad, fair and unfair. He can only be evaluated by those external actions and words by us.

In this great race, that has ceased to be a call to beliefs, policy, and the future, we have reached the wire. We are at the point where we are to evaluate a man’s character. We are to evaluate a man’s integrity. We are to choose the next President by our own guts, using our own life. The resources we have to make this choice are various and partisan; the marketing of these two candidates by the media commentary has become less clear than mud. The integrity that we all hope we have in being honest and fair is not found in any of the media outlets we choose to watch. All that we can truly do is listen to these men speak and try to evaluate who we believe to make the best choices on our behalf. We must attempt to set the bar higher than the commentary offered by the self-important spin-doctors of any media outlet. We must think for ourselves. When realizing that our vote is for a man, for one man who we should trust at the end of the day.  We should believe that he has the intestinal fortitude to do what is right, that his virtue is pure, that he is a patriot of the United States of America, and his reasons for accepting the challenge of this role are true and honest.