Legacy. A legacy is something left from the past. It is either handed down or remains from previous times. Legacies can also be things or ideas that are outdated. During this campaign season, which will last the rest of the year, we keep hearing about legacies and which candidate embodies those legacies. The Reagan legacy, the Clinton legacy, the FDR legacy; remnants of the past.

These trips down memory lane should remain nostalgic. There is no need to revisit the past to improve the future. We should look to the past to avoid the mistakes and pitfalls that were created. Every person who left a legacy was the person for that time. They fulfilled a need, or worse, a dream or fantasy. To hold a candidate up to a past president is ludicrous and foolish. Worse, it is dangerous.

We face a set of totally different problems than we did twenty five years ago or fifteen years ago. These problems cannot and should not be solved with solutions of the past. We need fresh solutions.

No candidate can live up to some past president’s term(s). The Republicans keep trying to find the new Reagan, the person who deeply embodies the Conservatism of Ronald Reagan. The Democrats keep talking about the Clinton legacy and who embodies the Liberalism of Clinton. There are those who want to dig up FDR or even Goldwater.

This is specious thinking. These men are gone. They left behind a legacy, for good or bad, which reflected a specific time in history. We can study the past but we cannot relive it. The world is fluid place, always moving and changing. The challenges are different, the issues are different, and there are new problems always on the horizon.

I would never vote for a Reagan Republican or a Clinton Democrat. Our issues today do not reflect the issues from so long ago. This creates litmus test politics. This is the style of politics that destroyed the last two campaigns and left such a bad taste in people’s mouths. It also led to the total breakdown in trust of the people towards their elected officials. They are below used car salesmen and lawyers in the trust factor. Legacies are fine to study. That is all they are good for.

There is no Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, or FDR. Get over it.