Issac J. Bailey | Voters ask for perfection but reward imperfection

There are currently 1.5 million people vying to become the first person to serve the newly created Seventh Congressional District, which is anchored by Horry County as a result of rapid growth over the past decade.

At least it feels like that many have already officially declared themselves candidates, including Republicans Horry County Council Chairman Tom Rice; former Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer (Newt Gingrich’s new BFF); S.C. Rep. Thad Viers, Myrtle Beach; Mande Wilkes; and Gary Stephens. Democrats Rep. Ted Vick, Chesterfield; and attorney Parnell Diggs are also in the race.

And I can now confirm through a variety of unnamed sources that Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog are coming out of retirement and moving to Loris to try to represent us in the U.S. Congress for the six-figure salary plus countless benefits, though they haven’t yet decided which will serve as campaign manager and which will be the actual candidate.

I’ve considered running myself. Why not? Everyone else seems to be interested in the seat.

But before I took the time to dig into all of the requirements and set up a volunteer structure and consider how much lobbyist-and-corporate-and-special-interest-free money I’d need to raise, I asked a simple question of some of our readers: If you could create the perfect candidate, what characteristics would you include?

Here are a few of those responses:

“Someone who has zero party affiliation. Someone with a Renaissance Man skill set. Someone willing to serve only two terms and leave. Someone willing to lower the perks of the job and pledge to not be a lobbyist when they leave office. Charismatic enough and open-minded enough to have honest conversations with all constituents and world leaders of differing faiths and philosophies.”

“Honesty - yes. And being willing to compromise for the greater good.”

“Honesty. Trust. Faith in Jesus. Joyful. Faithful. Truthful. Forgiving. Does not play the race game or use race as a crutch. Not blaming.”

“A brain.”

And this one from Jessica Vaitis, via Facebook:

“Honesty, commitment to the good of the people, someone who believes in the absolute separation of church and state, a supporter of education and the military, someone who is capable of understanding both sides of an argument while being strong in his or her own convictions, someone who is willing to concede if they are wrong and compromise if they can. Essentially, we will never find this person.”

We probably won’t because we don’t really want to.

Everyone says they want to be represented by an honest person, and then will promptly vote that person out of office when that honesty includes things we don’t want to hear. Medicare and health care costs are the primary drivers of our long-term debt, yet most members of the public – Republican, Democratic and independent – have consistently said they don’t want to do what’s necessary to fix the problem.

Tax increases don’t always hurt the economy, and most serious people who have taken a look at the issue said there is no viable way of getting rid of our deficit without increasing government revenue. But a Republican who reminds his party of that truism is seen as a scoundrel who needs to be banished.

We love politicians who compromise for the greater good – as long as that greater good matches what we believe to be true. But if they compromise and the other side refuses, we label them weak, naïve.

Many voters claim they want candidates to believe in Jesus – but some want them to emulate the Jesus of the four Gospels while others want the fire and brimstone Revelation version.

We want someone who will cut government spending -- but still bring goodies to the home district.

We want them to be better than the rest of us – then punish the few who achieve that lofty goal.

Representing this area in Congress is going to be a remarkable responsibility and honor for whoever wins the seat. But that person won’t be perfect.

There can be no perfect candidates until there are perfect voters.