American History

Policies governing the choice of presidential candidates in any country are important. They ensure the best candidates who can offer proper leadership are the ones that are given an opportunity to compete the presidential office. American policies require proper verification of the candidates citizenship and the record of Hisher stay in the states is satisfactory. This paper is going to look into some of the qualities that should be used to choose an ideal candidate.

For an individual to run for presidency in the United States of America, there are some of the requirements that heshe has to meet. They include the requirement of the individual to be a natural born citizen of the United States. The requirements for one to be considered a US citizen are scrutinized before heshe is allowed to contest for presidency. Immigrants no matter the period they have lived in the US can not be allowed to contest for presidency. Children who are born outside America by American parents are considered eligible to run for the presidential position but it is a requirement that they should have lived in the country (US) for a minimum of 14 years before they run for the office. This is so because of the need of the president to be familiar with general issues facing the population as a whole.

Majority of people expect the candidate to be of good moral standing. Therefore the morals and ethics of the presidential aspirants are put under scrutiny particularly by the opponents. This could prove to be difficult for an individual whose character had been compromised in one way or the other during hisher earlier life. Other aspects that could give an individual a better opportunity of winning in elections is experiences that heshe has had. Many of citizens vote for individuals who have had an opportunity to serve the public in any capacity and have shown his outstanding leadership skills. This shows that the individual the candidate has the experience and the capacity to deal with related positions.

All US presidents have been white males possibly because of the cultural believes and practices that did not provide a level playing ground to both male and female. Majority of the US population is comprised of whites and considering the racial discrimination against immigrants that existed, it could not be possible for an immigrant to run for presidency. The US constitution also prohibits immigrants from running for presidency there fore the only people who were in a position of becoming presidents were male whites.

Laws governing qualifications for presidency should be reviewed so that they can be able to provide a level playing ground to both male, female and immigrants who are legal Citizens of the US. A constitutional perfect presidential aspirant should posses the following qualities which could ensure that there is no division between democrats and the republicans or any other party

Heshe should clean and blameless such that his history when traced should not be a questionable one. Hisher record should be one that characterized by biasness based on tribe, gender, race color, creed or any other factor that can be considered discriminatory. Heshe should be married for at least ten years. This will ensure that the individual has what it takes to handle matters involving pressure because if the individual is able to manage his family for that long despite numerous challenges associated with family, then he can be able to handle pressure that can come about with his position as president.
He should remain alert to guard the country against attack by enemies. He should be able to defend the country through actions. He should be an individual with the interests of each and every person in society at heart. He should not be easily manipulated by individuals or organizations.

He should also be an individual with excellent behavior with good hospitality. Should be friendly, warm, humble, loving to other people and also kind. He should have the ability to learn and teach others either literally or through actions. He should not be using any drug whether legal or illegal as it may interfere with his judgment ability. He should not have characters that may bring out a negative impression about him such as walking out on people. Should be patient and without greed, without jealous or envy and he should be able to bring up a morally upright family. It should also include the current requirements but the clause that locks out immigrants from running for presidency should be done away with.

Sections like the one with the age limit of a candidate should also be retained because they will ensure that the individual has enough experience before heshe is entrusted to lead the country. Political experience should be a must because it will be through that experience that he will know how things are run in the government and make necessary amendments to poor policies. The type of work that the individual is involved in should not be a factor in determining the qualities because there have been successful presidents in the History of America who had humble jobs like Jimmy Carter who was a peasant.

These qualities will help the candidate to effectively run the government because such a candidate will be able to win the confidence and support of the citizen aspects that are considered to be important for successful governance.