If you listen to the conservative pundits, President Joe Biden is the most corrupt politician ever to walk God's green earth.  If you listen to leftist pundits, former President Donald Trump is a traitor scheming with Putin to make fascism fashionable again.  Conservatives say that if Biden is talking, he is lying.  Leftists say that Trump never met a lie he didn't like.  A woman who accused Biden of sexual abuse has fled to Russia for her own safety.  Trump, meanwhile, accuses Ron "DeSanctimonious" of being Dudley Do-Right while secretly enjoying the womanizing reputation he has earned.

While the November election of 2024 is still sixteen months away, it appears now that Joe and Don are headed for a rematch.  As some of us consider that unhappy prospect, the question on our lips is, "How low can we go?"

Thomas Jefferson once wrote, "The government you elect is the one you deserve."

Once upon a time, I was a high school teacher.  One of my duties involved standing outside my class and monitoring students as they changed classes.  When I noticed how my students paired themselves with a significant other, sometimes I was encouraged.  Most of the time, however, I was discouraged by the Bonnie and Clyde wannabe pairings I observed.  I suspect Jefferson was nudging us to make better choices in his quote.

Image: Biden and Trump.  YouTube screen grab.

Like Job, many of us look at our time and wonder,

Why do the wicked prosper, growing old and powerful? They see their children grow up and settle down, and they enjoy their grandchildren. Their homes are safe from every fear, and God does not punish them. (Job 21:7-17, NLT)

It seems to me that Jefferson is blaming us for the sorry lot of politicians we have in Washington and in our fifty state capitals.

How do we find better politicians?  In the past, we thought the media would help us vet politicians.  This is no longer the case.

When revelations about Hunter Biden's laptop began to surface just before the 2020 elections, most of the media conspired with the leftists to suppress the alarming details in that computer.  When it seemed obvious to conservatives that China's Wuhan Flu was timed oddly to benefit Democrats, people making such suggestions were labeled as wackos.

Once, I was young and idealistic.  Now I am old and idealistic.  Our presidential selection system has given us John Kennedy, LBJ, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, two Bushes, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.  I see a downward trajectory in that assembly.

I doubt that Trump or Biden would want us hungering for a Dudley Do-Right or Daphne Do-Right as the 2024 election gets nearer.  By now, we can look at both their records.  Do we settle once again for the lesser of two evils, or do we look higher?

Ned Cosby, a regular contributor to American Thinker, is a pastor, veteran Coast Guard officer, and a retired career public high school teacher. His newest novel OUTCRY is a love story exposing the refusal of Christian leaders to report and discipline clergy who sexually abuse our young people. This work of fiction addresses crimes that are all too real. Cosby has also written RECOLLECTIONS FROM MY FATHER'S HOUSE, tracing his own odyssey from 1954 to the present. For more info, visit Ned Cosby.