With the amount of money being raised by both parties for the next election cycle we should be skeptical of nearly everything and anything we hear regarding candidates on any media.  Our elections have turned into massive churns of easy money devoted to even easier misrepresentations of this most complex period of American history.  The current administration has done anything and everything it can do to make sure that our perception of reality shifts from solid experience and documented history to a fictional narrative commodity bought and sold by the super wealthy to manipulate Americans.  The other party chases the tail of the leading political fiction writers with endless “tears of joy” or “my heart is breaking” kinds of fund raisers trying to catch up to compete in this sad competition of very bad fiction.

None of the political parties will be immune to the lashing and trashing of opponents with AI memes on steroids.  We the People on the other hand need to make decisions in the voting booth that serve our real to-the-bone needs and those of future generations.  One growing issue is debt.  The debt is a bomb thrown across time to explode for the next generation.  Our current administration has gone nuclear when it comes to spending our future children’s resources for vanity projects such as  ballrooms, triumphant arches, and bombastic wars of distraction. Our expensive election adds are going to be about as valid as internet adds for abs for eighty year olds.  

Modest Proposal of advice for Good  

The problem of the internet and most media is their ability to hide and disguise the disingenuous. Make your voting decisions using as much of your organic intelligence as you can.  Your own mind and body are first line of radar for that which is valid and that which is scam.  That sense of real in you is sometimes called the BS filter given the compromised information banks of the day. Locally, I suggest you mute the adds on TV and computers.  Research your local candidates using independent sources  to see if they are really connected to a broad swath of your community.  Attend local debates and watch for ‘the squirm‘ when inconvenient questions come up.  Watch for hopeful signs of class, style, compassion, caring and leadership when conflict arises.  Avoid  zealots who seem happy to take from God and give to the Caesar they believe themselves to be. Nationally, look at the candidate’s true biography.  Forgiveness in politics only is helpful when it is matched with a penitent track record of genuine regret and good works.  Serial bankruptcies in a business history, as we are discovering, is bad news for a potential leader in a nation wrestling with debt.  Rude and disruptive language, savage divisiveness are fatal to character and leadership.    Look for an in-depth knowledge and experience with a true grasp of history. The recorded performance of integrity, good character, and wisdom should be the first step of choosing a candidate.  If you can’t make the first step, keep looking and demand better.  That would be good.