One Convention down, one more to go! This will be the coronation week of Queen Hillary for the Democratic party. Just like last week when Donald Trump accepted the mantle of the Republican Godfather; we will once again be subjected to speech after speech celebrating a candidate no one really wants. One article claims this will be a media love-fest — direct orders, “No Mocking Hillary!” Chris Matthews says it will be “magical.”

As I write this some of you are fuming. “How can they celebrate someone that outright lies? How can anyone vote for Hillary? The Democrats have sold their soul.” That is how many felt about the Republicans last week.

So as a country, what are we to do? The unspoken feeling everyone I know either longs for a viable third party candidate to step forward and bring this country back from the brink of ruin; or they have decided to pick the lesser of two evils. I think there is this general feeling that because we didn’t choose someone with character and dignity, we need to hold our breath, plug our nose and just vote.

You have to vote for someone. “No, I will take the higher road and abstain.” O.K., that is your prerogative; but you aren’t holier or better just because you refuse to vote. Stop this charade of moral superiority.

“But I want to vote for someone I can believe in, someone who will save this country, someone who is good.” Therein lies the problem… “No one is good but God alone.” As much as we want a man or woman who is good, honorable and true to lead us – the truth is any leader we choose has latent darkness lying deep. That is the problem with the human condition, no one is righteous, no not one.

I will never forget Charles Colson’s, a man who was once special counsel for President Richard Nixon, unique view on how the White House corrupts even the best. He said, “The lure of power can separate the most resolute of persons from the true nature of moral leadership, which is service to others. It’s difficult to stand on a pedestal and wash the feet of those below.” When people are given power over others it is hard not to love it, and it is impossible not to let it go to your head.

But isn’t there someone better than Donald or Hillary? Can’t we get someone like Reagan or Kennedy? Lincoln or FDR? Jefferson and Adams? 

What if we were to look at our past leaders with the same pair of glasses we criticize our opponents of today? We would quickly see that they all were fragile humans…

Reagan? He starred in a movie called, “Bedtime for Bonzo”. Bonzo was about a pet monkey. Is that Presidential material? He was divorced and re-married to a lady that was a believer in astrology. He started the “War on Drugs” that has been a major factor in causing the racial disparity in prison. He was not perfect by any means.

Kennedy? How many affairs did our President have in the White House? 5? 7? 11? The world will never know. Did you know Kennedy approved covert black-ops in a strange little place called Viet Nam to stop communism? Have you ever heard of ‘Bay of Pigs’? He was not perfect by any means.

Lincoln was often very moody, melancholy and controlled by a wife who exhibited fits of depression as well. He was widely hated by almost everyone in his first two years of the Presidency. FDR was a pompous spoiled brat who was often called America’s Karl Marx because he was the first President to push a new form of socialism in America called the New Deal. Both of these men were extremely disliked.

Did you know Adams and Jefferson were fierce rivals and adversaries for many years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence? For a while, they sent 69 letters of anger and vehemence to one another only to come together after the death of their mutual friend, Benjamin Rush.

No matter who you admire as a leader, they all have some dark secrets and broken patterns of behavior. We all do. Even our Christian heroes had horrible foibles: Luther hated Jews, Calvin had a person killed, and some of the Popes (Alexander VI) were pure evil. Sports stars are often messed up – – Kobe, OJ, and Hope Solo. And even our talk show hosts who love to mock the hypocritical failings of our leaders are hypocrites themselves. David Letterman, the master cynic, had a number of extra-marital affairs with his female employees and even admits he was drunk 80% of the time early in his career.

The point is: We all are broken.

So what is the answer? Is there even a chance of hope to elect someone that will not sell the U.S.A. down the river? In the book Bad Religion the author Ross Douthat describes a concept that we all need to understand, it is called ‘Provisional Exceptionalism’. Provisional Exceptionalism teaches that there is something unique and special about the American experiment; but in order for it to work it must be “expectant but not presumptuous, perpetually tempered by humility and open to correction and surprise.” Our constitutional freedoms give us the way to be great as a people, but we can never forget we are still human. This includes all leaders, Presidents, Congressmen, Senators and local mayors. As Lincoln said:

“Let us judge not, that we not be judged…With malice toward none, with charity for all… The Almighty has his own purposes…as God gives us to see the right.”

So then, who do I vote for? You have to first decide which direction you want the country to go, not which candidate will save us. You have to ask yourself what business do you want the President to be about and vote for the one who you think will be about those things. Are they to serve our interests or their own? And then, after making your choice you have to be lead by your own personal convictions and conscience – – not the mockery of the crowd or heavy-handed slandering of the popular culture. It is easy to call each other names, but that gets us no-where. 

“With malice toward none…” Easier said than done these days!

What I wrote probably won’t help many of you. Donald will still be the Donald, Hillary will still be the schemer to many of you. I understand. But we will survive either way. God is on the throne (Psalm 11). And if you lean on the conservative side like me, and Hillary makes you want to climb your living room walls and bite down on the couch you are sitting on, remember, our side of the aisle is still to blame for Nixon.