Letter to the Editor: U.S. in need of selfless leaders

Dear Editor,

Sadly, after watching the president speak this week on the issue of Syria and our potential involvement, the one thing that kept reverberating in my mind was this:

What is abundantly and painfully clear is the job of president is now, and has been for many terms past, undertaken by men with no honor, integrity, honesty or truthful interest in what is actually best for the nation. This episode is only symptomatic of the decline in our ethical standards of both the political class and the average constituent.

We can accept the teachable moment of this debacle and return to the principals and virtues of the original intent of our founders. Granted, they were imperfect men, but no one can deny their willingness to place their personal best interests aside for the benefit of the nation as a whole.

What we see here today and many yesterdays is the wholesale loss of the concept of public service. Our entire nation is run, operated and manned by grip-notching gunmen who will do anything to play in the power circles. Hasn't anyone else noticed the "every-man a little dictator" approach to governing? That is spawned by the players' inability to differentiate service to the nation from service to themselves.

You will note our political environment is now a twisted smoking ruin because we incentivize the wrong kinds of people into office. Instead of the citizen legislator who makes a temporary sacrificial service-based adjustment to their life, we have power-hungry thugs who deem their service a career.

Until we get the money and perpetual power trip out of politics, we will continue to see this descent into squalor as only the worst of the worst pontificate before us, declaring their mistaken myopic view of their own self-serving greatness. Not to overemphasize our founders' intentions due to the unpopular nature of honoring their efforts, but their vision was of a microscopic federal government, a miniature state government and self-governance for the rest of us. Losing sight of those principles has led us to this point - a land of spin, political expediencies, stumbling, failed statesmanship and the inevitable consequences of allowing our alleged representatives and leaders to come from the wrong pool of national human resources.

Restoration will only come when we restore ethics, patriotism, actual sacrifice and integrity into the service positions that direct and lead our nation. Government's only function is to protect and defend the citizens and the nation as a whole. When those charged with wielding that sword turn it upon the nation in a thrashing, writhing grasp for power, the nation loses. No one exemplifies these truths better than our current president.

– Michael Evans of America's Voice Now, a West Plains-based organization advocating for small government via columns and a radio show