Michael D. Davis

7 years ago · 4 min. reading time · ~10 ·

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Sucking At The Teat of Another Election Process

Sucking At The Teat of Another Election Process

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"There's a sucker born every minute"

P. T. Barnum (really?)

Here in the United States we are in the last few days of what is being referred to as one of the most divisive political campaigns for the presidency of our country since its founding. It’s one that is sure to leave deep lasting scars for a long time to come. The depth and breadth of these scars is a testament to the polarizing gap between ideologies and political parties embodied in two people who have been anything but civil in their bid for the highest seat in the land.

I’m all for checks and balances and looking at all sides of an issue. This is one of the principles that underlie the founding of my country. Without this we would not be able to voice an opinion and object to those things we feel are not in the best interest of ourselves and our fellow citizens. Unfortunately our modern political machine has made it increasingly difficult to focus on the issues. Instead we are treated to what can only be described as a three ring circus of the sordid and macabre, starring two opposing candidates and the voting public.

This will make my 10th election process since becoming eligible to vote. With each passing election the negative campaigning has seemed to become worse. The stakes have become higher, the financial expenditures astronomic and the personal degradation of not only the candidates running for office, but those of us who are asked to vote becoming more front and center to the outcome of the process. Who in their right mind would want to endure such a process? And therein lays the problem.

We have been witness to a campaign that has pitted two persons with completely different lifestyles and backgrounds against one another and been fed a steady diet of chum from the main stream news media. This smorgasbord of all you can stomach blood, guts and gore has covered in sickening depth and detail the darker side of political wrangling and personal faults and failures of two people, one of whom will become the leader of this country. Depending upon which political side you fall on, one is portrayed as a saint and savior while the other is evil personified and the reason our country is headed towards inevitable collapse. The problem is we really don’t know these two individuals at all.

Despite what we are fed through the national network mouthpieces, unless we have had an actual working relationship or a personal or professional relationship with the candidates we have no idea who they really are and what their personal fitness is for carrying out the duties of the presidency. Let me say here and now that in no way am I under the illusion that main stream media is anything but biased in their reporting. It’s so obvious it should be investigated itself. Watching the antics of popular personalities as they engage in their make believe reporting is like watching commentators on the sidelines of a sporting event pitting two well known teams against one another. They even use the time in all their rotten reporting reverie to plug their personal books and accomplishments. It seems that most of these commentators, and the networks they work for, are more interested in ratings and access than they are about fair and unbiased news. It doesn’t matter whether a person considers themselves to be liberal, conservative, progressive or Tea Party types, the one thing I hope we can all agree upon is that the news media in this country is not fair or balanced.

We’ve been told many things about both candidates. I’m sure that some things are true and others are outright lies. I’m also of a mind to believe that there is a grain of truth to most things being put out by the media, but that the way these grains are begin spun will mislead the voting public for the purpose of making one candidate look good or bad for the aggrandizement or at the expense of the other. To put it another way, it’s just politics as usual. To me this is not a fair and just system of checks and balances. This is manipulation and misdirection at the expense of, we, the voting constituency. Is it any wonder that over three quarters of the U.S. public are said to be confused, disheartened and fed up with the two candidates we have been asked to choose between? It appears we are presented with a choice of voting for the lesser of two evils. The scars are widening and getting deeper with every passing election process.

Truth is we don’t know the truth about the things we think we know if all we do is get our information from main stream news sources. Very few people can say they actually have firsthand knowledge about the ability of either candidate to lead us in a direction that is best for this country. The rest of us either have to be accepting of the crap we are continually fed by people with their own agendas or do some digging ourselves to get to the truth. That’s not a bad idea. Congressional voting records and past speeches are a matter of public record. Articles and interviews with information on issues and biases of each of the candidates are accessible on line. There are news sources that are less bias and balanced in their reporting. It’s up to us to seek these out and make our decision based on our own research, not hearsay and conjecture.

The heart of the matter is this; be an informed voter, a free thinker who spends some time researching the issues and the candidates in person, and someone who isn’t part of a foolish crowd of ticket holding patrons cheering on clowns riding donkeys and princess riding dancing elephants. Don’t buy into the political circus of deception. What is it that P.T. Barnum supposedly said? “There’s a sucker born every minute”? Have you ever actually researched that saying? If you do it will prove my point about doing your own research instead of assuming that what you’ve been told is true. You see, Mr. Barnum knew a thing or two about both circuses and politics. And that my friend is the heart of the matter.

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© 2016 Michael D. Davis – All Rights Reserved


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