Typically, we have two choices in any federal election when it comes to the presidency, either a Republican or a Democrat. There are three legitimate candidates this time but the third is Independent and typically a nonfactor.
There was a time when a party’s platform was enough to give voters a clear choice. The differences in policies were enough to offer a clear enough picture for citizens to decide. Over time, those differences tended to blend making it necessary to assess each candidate’s character to discern which one best represented the United States.
Just about the turn of the 21st century, the party differences took a wide turn away from each other. Now, it matters less what party the candidate belongs to and more to what party the voter belongs.
Today, street reporters find that few people even know who the candidates are but they know which party they’re going to vote for – or against. Elections have boiled down to love versus hate.
Winning is what’s important and it doesn’t matter if the candidate is an empty suit; an empty suit is either easy to love or easy to hate. America has nearly lost its national soul. Patriotism no longer means what it used to. The sentiment today is loyalty to the party, not the country, or even worse.
Not all of America’s presidents have been extraordinary; they are only human. But in recent decades, the parties have given us weak candidates who make even weaker presidents. No need to name them, what mattered was whether they were Democrats or Republicans.
In the past, voters depended on the delegates of each party to select the candidate best suited to represent the party. What else they may represent was of little concern to party liners. Those voters relying on character were considered oddballs and outliers.
This slide into a cultural morass worsened when an outsider stepped onto the scene and excited those oddballs. The outsider defeated an insider for president and the political dam burst. That dam is still hemorrhaging.
Without going into the pros and cons of the past two administrations, it suffices to say the executives of those two administrations jumped into the 2024 race. They swept their primaries, but an unfortunate debate between the two left the country shaken. Needless to say, the shadow descending on America was getting darker.
Had America elected a man suffering non compos mentis? Did no one realize that? Had the hallowed halls of our nation’s capital turned a blind eye to the dangers of such a situation? There are remedies for such things, but no one was considering it.
Following the debate, one candidate was nearly assassinated and the other was booted out of the race. Incredibly, the executive exhibiting cognitive decline is still running the country.
It could be said that Washington D.C. is playing a game with America – a deadly one.
In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls: the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country… .” Is that what’s happened here?
Not only are we a people divided, but we have a government that has lost its way, its integrity, responsibility, and is sacrificing its sacred honor. Can an election bring it back?
Our only hope is that America makes the right choice.