If I were to become the next president | GARY COSBY JR.

We have just come through Super Tuesday and, although I'm writing this before a single vote has been cast I have no doubt that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden won the majority of the votes in Alabama in their respective party primaries. I wonder, is it too late to throw my name in the hat? Yes, please laugh along with me because I will never be president!

It’s still fun to play the game, especially when you have an election that looks like it will come down to the two most undesirable candidates in U.S. history. We’ve been there for three election cycles, so this is nothing new. Heck, maybe I would make a better candidate than either of the two or three who are the actual candidates. I mean, I still have my memory and I haven’t come under indictment, so already I have some plusses over the two leaders.

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If I were to lay out my platform, I have no doubt that my No. 1 priority would be to work to unify the nation. It is an impossible job, especially to go it alone and without the support of a political party because either of the two main parties now are so invested in the politics of division that neither of them would even think of supporting a candidate who wanted to end the main way they hang onto power.

Why would unity be the first and most important plank in my campaign platform? I can tell you that the road we are traveling is a road that brings this nation to a bad end; therefore, I would do all that is within my power to put the brakes on and halt the direction we are heading. We don’t need to “Make America Great Again,” or do whatever Biden’s slogan is. What we must do is lessen the divisions that are tearing this nation apart.

Abraham Lincoln said, and he was quoting from the Holy Bible, a house divided against itself cannot stand. That is the problem and it is a problem of our own creation. We have divided our house and now look solely to one party or the other to govern, but that is not how this works. It takes both parties to represent the country, possibly it could take a third party as well, but that is yet to be seen.

America is too diverse a population group to walk in lockstep, but that isn’t the definition of unity for which I would strive. I can tell you right now, and you who read this column regularly, know I am not smart enough to fix all the problems. I do have enough sense to bring people in who have that kind of intelligence.

Take any divisive issue you want; the border, abortion, aid to Ukraine and Israel. The issue does not matter. What I would do would be to bring in smart people from both sides or all sides of the issue and use the old locked room technique. I would put them in a room and tell them to figure out some kind of compromise that we can all live with and then I would take that to Congress and find someone to sponsor it as legislation.

The way we are approaching problems right now is that the majority party looks at an issue, figures out its position, then creates legislation and attempts to cram it down the throats of the opposition. Both parties are using the strategy. It stinks. It is not representative of the American people in the first place and it is guaranteed to create an atmosphere of continuing animosity and a vengeance mentality among lawmakers.

We see that right now in the Republican House trying to impeach literally anyone in the Democratic White House. So far, they haven’t been able to get anything to stick on President Joe Biden, so they recently impeached, after two attempts, a member of his Cabinet. They have no chance of a conviction, just as the Democratic Party’s impeachment of then-President Donald Trump had zero chance of conviction in the Senate.

We have legislators playing power games that have nothing to do with governing and everything to do with biting and clawing at each other in this extremist power game being played in Washington. That’s the kind of crap I want to see ended.

We have a country filled with smart people. If I were to be president, I would use as many of those smart people as I possibly could and from as many points of view as I possibly could to help me be smart enough to hold the office of trust to which the people had elected me.

We don’t see that happening right now. More’s the shame. Right now, if you are a Republican who isn’t extreme enough for the party’s extreme wing you are suddenly a Republican In Name Only. I’m sure the Democrats have a similar epithet for people in that party who don’t toe the extremist line. That mindset must be stopped.

Unity isn’t all agreeing precisely on everything, but political unity is finding a way to solve problems for Americans in a manner that make sense for as many people as possible.

Gary Cosby Jr. can be reached at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: What if I were to be the next president? | GARY COSBY JR.