Presidential qualifications not strict enough

     America needs a president that has good political skills, but we also need someone with so much more than that. We need a president that has good social skills, patience, intelligence, and diplomacy. Lately, there are a few possible presidential candidates that lack all of the above qualities, and it’s actually quite terrifying.

     The news has been overflowing with one particular name over   the course of the last few months—Donald Trump. The television personality and businessman has decided to run for president, and he actually is gaining quite a large fan base. Sure, he’s a great businessman, but do we really want a racist and misogynist running our country? I know I don’t.

     If you watched the VMA’s on MTV on August 30, you were probably shocked when you heard the ending line of Kanye West’s acceptance speech. West announced that he intends to run for president in 2020. West is a singer, songwriter, and performer notoriously known for being an awful person and thinking of himself as a God. Many of us wonder if this is in fact a hoax or if we will actually have to endure the campaign of Kanye West in years to come.

     Both of these events have prompted me to ask: Should the guidelines for becoming president of the United States be changed? The Constitution states that to be president, one must be born in the United States, have lived there for 14 years, and be a minimum of 35 years old. Considering the responsibility and power the president holds, these guidelines are extremely lax. However, to change these guidelines, the Constitution would have to be amended, which would create a precedent that could later be used to change other rights Americans are entitled to because of the Constitution.

    Assuming it was possible to amend the Constitution, what would the amendment be? Many Americans think it should be required that all presidential candidates must have served in the military. Others believe, me included, that they should have to have previously served as some kind of politician or elected official, preferably a governor. It is hard to say what can qualify a person to run such a large, prosperous country. Regardless of the guidelines, hopefully someone that is grossly unqualified just wouldn’t receive enough votes to have their name on the final ballot. I hope I live in a country that will not elect Donald Trump or Kanye West.