Preface for Truth Matters:

How the Voters Can Take Back Their Nation

I wrote this book to recapture a magical moment of my childhood. On November 4, 1980, at the age of 12, I participated in a mock election for the presidency of the United States. I was six years away from being allowed to vote for real, so I savored my time waiting for Mr. Baltz, my Social Studies teacher, to call the names of the candidates.

I knew who each of the three candidates were: The President of the United States for the past four years, Jimmy Carter; Ronald Reagan, who had been governor of my state of California before I followed politics; and John B. Anderson.

After watching debates and reading newspaper articles, I had no trouble selecting Anderson. His ability to tell the public the truth that we were living in difficult times and the courage to propose unpopular solutions (like a raise on tax on gasoline) struck me as the type of leadership our nation needed.

What puzzled me after the votes in the mock election were counted was why my classmates didn't get it. Twenty-six of the thirty students in the class voted for the politician who candidate who made the easy promises of cutting taxes and raising defense spending during a time of economic decline, Reagan. Only the classmate I sat next to, Diana Klintworth, joined me in supporting Anderson.

My classmates were not alone in misunderstanding the candidates. That night the returns gave Reagan an overwhelming victory in the election and Anderson only seven percent of the vote. Inspired my Anderson's campaign, I decided I would try to understand our political system and how the voters could have missed him.

Over the years, I got involved with politics in many ways. I made phone calls for candidates, including one written about in this book, Michael Dukakis, for his presidential campaign in 1988. I studied political science at the University of California at Irvine and learned about our electoral system, including reasons why third-party candidates like Anderson have had trouble getting votes. I also have read numerous books on political campaigns, including ten in one week when I attended college.

There activities were enjoyable but something was missing. It eventually dawned on me that the only way I could answer the questions I had asked myself in 1980 would be to talk to Anderson himself. Using my best detective skills, I went on the Internet and ran a check on one of the search engines. His name came up several times, and, after I had discarded the "hits" for the rock star of the same name, I followed the proper leads to a group known as the Center for Voting and Democracy and a column he had recently written. Upon calling them, they gave me his work number.

When a voice answered, it sounded familiar. Still I asked, "May I speak to John Anderson, please?" He said, "This is he." After asking a few questions about the column, I told him I was a big fan of his and was still upset that he lost in 1980. Before long, we were on a first-name basis and made plans to meet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he taught law, when I joined my wife on a business trip in that area.

The conversation that transpired solidified a book I had been writing. He turned out to be exactly the hero I had always thought of him as. Ever the gentleman, he took me to dinner, where we had the conversation I had been waiting for 19 years. He answered my questions about his candidacy and gave me many ideas about making our electoral system work more effectively.

Not long afterwards, John told me a group of people in the California Reform Party were trying to persuade him to run for president. They wanted to put his name on the ballot for the state's primary the following March. Though he did not formally agree to it, he did not object, and they put his name on the ballot.

So, the question of my childhood came to me full circle. Should I vote for someone like Al Gore who has a strong chance of winning or should I vote for the best candidate, John Anderson? My belief that every voter should ask himself or herself the second question and ignore the first led me to vote for John once again. That same question forms the basis of this book.

In every presidential election, candidates discuss the problems facing the voters and explain their solutions. The reader will understand the responsibility of the voter to research the issues and the candidates so to better understand which candidates are most truthful in explaining their positions. The candidates willing to tell voters what they do not want to hear are best able to lead our nation. When a majority of voters value the truth above self-interest, we will all receive the leadership that we deserve.

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