Does The President Really Effect The Quality of Life for Most Americans?

I remember when it was 2012 and the race for the white house was in full swing between Obama and Romney. My parents really wanted Romney to win because his proposed policies would help them out the most. As everyone knows, Obama won, and everyone in our house was for a short time upset on the decision. In the few years following the election it was obvious that not much changed for our family. Life went on and we made a good living with our furniture stores. It makes me wonder why it was a big deal in the first place to worry about a political office. Shouldn't we worry about local legislation a bit more? you know, the people who can directly effect us?

Anyways, I have just recently decided to get in the loop of the presidential candidates and their platforms so I can be a responsible citizen. After avoiding all the debates and the build up to this election cycles GOP I decided I would take thirty minutes to check everyone's platform on their websites. Here is what I found:

If Trump wins, I don’t have to pay an income tax until I make good money.

If Sanders wins I get free college.

If Clinton wins, I have a better chance of affording college.

If Cruz wins, I pay a flat rate tax when I make a certain amount of money.

Correct me if I am oversimplifying things too much but it looks like I can generally benefit from any of these people getting into office. So it doesn’t seem like something to sweat over. But, hey, correct me if I’m wrong. On a personal level whoever is in power doesn’t stop me from making due with what I have.

Now I can see that on the right side of the spectrum the ultra wealthy can suffer from higher tax rates, on the left side the people in poverty need all the help they can get. But what about the people in the middle? I don’t think most capable Americans need to rely on a leader for them to live a good life.

A personal goal for me is to worry less about the macro level politics and worry about educating myself with as many skills as possible, becoming the best I can be, and as I build value in myself, I can do whatever I want because I will be able to tell stories with any medium (meaning I can sell myself and my ideas), manage any system or process, and learn anything fast enough to solve problems that are presently in front of me. If I’m focused on being the best I can be, there is no policy the government can throw on me that will stop me from adapting and making things work. Comedian Adam Corolla touches base with this when explaining the actual role of the president, at least what it should be.

I understand that most people will not have the drive to become better, but those people need to understand that if they chose to do nothing but spend the energy electing a person to make decisions for them then they should be happy with any decision that person makes. So point of this quick blog post: The president cannot effect us on a micro level. Worry about governing yourself before you try to elect a guy or girl to solve you problems.