The news rattles on with campaign reporting. Gossip, true stories and lies framing the lives of the candidates permeate every facet of the media. You can’t turn on the radio, television, access your email or Facebook account without hearing some new scandal introduced by the key words “stunning,” “shocking” or “This could change the course of the election.”

It’s the game of Bunker Hill we used to play as children.

We would find a small knoll and climb to the top. The first one at the top would shout, “I’m the king of Bunker Hill!” The rest of the players would scuffle and push until one player was the last one standing at the top of the hill.

We got bruised knees, skinned elbows and banged heads, but it was great fun. This campaign business would be great fun, too – if the whole country didn’t hang in the balance and freedom, as we know it, one election away from extinction.

What should we be looking for in a candidate for the president of the United States?

First of all, our president must owe allegiance to God and the people. This nation was not founded on any Christian religion. It was founded on Christian principles. Love your neighbor. Six days shalt thou labor. Don’t bear false witness.

Murder, stealing and adultery are unacceptable. Have integrity and uprightness in everything you do. If you break the law, you answer to the people and, ultimately, to God.

George Washington said, “Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.” We cannot afford to abandon our values to any philosophy that will destroy or subvert the rights of men and women. Our soldiers and patriots have fought too hard to obtain and guard those rights. There are philosophies that would take us back into the Dark Ages.

We must never elect those who espouse even a hint of anti-Christian doctrines. We must stand with Abraham Lincoln who, in the Gettysburg Address, said “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Second, our new president must hold the Constitution with awe and respect. Our new president must defend the law of the land with utmost care and vigilance. Too many times, the stroke of a pen has wiped away our freedoms until we stand on the brink of annihilation.

George Washington warned us against such men. “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

We should flee from any candidate who screams that the rules are unfair and should be changed to accommodate their election ambitions. That kind of candidate will trample on the Constitution when it does not suit their agenda, no matter how eloquent the lip-service they pay to it.

Under the Constitution of the U.S. and the constitutions of individual states, laws are made by the consent and will of the people. States have chosen their own processes of election and, until those laws are changed within the parameters of the Constitution, the rules are the rules and should not be altered.

If we want to be sure the candidate we choose holds the Constitution in respect, we need only to look at the Preamble of the Constitution and ask ourselves, “How well does my candidate’s agenda coincide with it?”

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union ...
Does my candidate promote unity? Or are they prone to creating divisions and chaos? Does my candidate attempt to destroy the credibility of another candidate by name-calling and slander?

Or do they attack the issues and statements of the other candidate? If the candidate uses name-calling and slander, it will be difficult for that person to unite behind the other when the election is over. If, on the other hand, the candidate only attacks the issues, it is easy to forgive, forget and unify.

establish Justice ...
Does my candidate have a sense of fair play? Do they speak of dealing justly with individual rights of Americans and all foreign powers? Do they play by the rules in every situation? Or do they go against the rules and seem to have the attitude that rules apply to everyone, but maintain there are exceptions when it comes to their own situation?

Do they obey the law now – and have they in the past? A person who sees themselves as subject to the law in all cases will be able to establish and maintain the justice needed to be president.

insure domestic Tranquility ...
Does my candidate have the temperament to ensure peace in the nation and homes of the people? This election cycle has raised more fear and trepidation in the hearts of the American people than any election of our history.

Tranquility is far from the hearts and minds of the people. The rhetoric has not only frightened the American people, it has raised the eyebrows and the ire of many world leaders. We must elect a president who promotes peaceful relations with our allies in other nations for the American people to feel safe.

provide for the common defense ...
How does my candidate plan to defend our country? Do they have a specific strategic plan that will secure our borders and defend against any possible threat? Do they believe in consulting Congress before issuing acts of war? Will they listen to their commanding officers in the field?

Will they protect and defend the privacy and the rights listed in the Bill of Rights? What is their record on the “right to bear arms?” What about building and maintaining our military?

George Washington said, “A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.”

promote the general Welfare ...
Many people believe welfare means taking care of the poor by giving them free stuff, but that is not what our Founding Fathers had in mind. The Oxford Dictionary defines welfare as “the health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group.”

Notice, the Constitution did not say “provide.” It said, “promote.” Promote means to motivate and encourage the people to become self-sufficient in providing for their own welfare.

Our Founding Fathers came from an era of pioneering when people were fiercely independent. Even in my time, to take charity was almost considered an insult to your character. Now we have candidates who want to change our form of government into socialism.

Some are outwardly promoting the change. Some are doing it subtly. Socialism is a system designed to rob from the worker and enslave the recipient.

to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
The only way the “Blessings of Liberty” will be secure and maintained for the future is to re-enthrone the Constitution as the infallible law of the land.

We must elect someone who will fight, not just with glittering words and platitudes but with heart and soul tied to a belief that freedom does not come from the halls of government but from the hand of Almighty God.

We must again ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. We must bring back a government that highlights George Washington’s belief: “In politics, as in philosophy, my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved.

If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease, and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant and happy.”

We need to stop playing “I’m the king of Bunker Hill” and elect a president who will curtail the oppressive regulations and allow the American people to be free to create, speak and live without the meddling hand of government. If we are successful, we will bring back the peace, prosperity and security we once knew as a nation.  PD

—Quotes from Washington came from Goodreads - George Washington Quotes.