Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man

First, let’s agree on at least this one premise. No political candidate is perfect. All candidates make campaign promises they don’t have the power to implement. There will always be disagreements about policy decisions, such as abortion and foreign aid. Those are things one can debate and maybe even agree to disagree. All of the above are normal and healthy in a democracy.

Character is not one of those things. How a person treats others, talk about others, or attacks others matter when deciding upon whom to vote for, whether it be for a town council member or the president of the United States. Their actions and their words should matter a great deal. Actions and words tell us how he will treat the whole of a town, a city, a state, or a nation. When elected, one does not only represent those who voted for you, but also those who didn’t.

We are truly at a crossroads for our nation’s continued survival as a democracy, a republic. Each branch of our government has been compromised by people who lack character. Within many states, the gerrymandering is so bad it doesn’t matter who votes, the incumbent will continue to win, and continue to cater to the needs of the money people not the electorate (see Ohio, Texas, and Florida as prime examples). Within the judiciary, many are appointed by the very people who have gerrymandered themselves in, or by extreme right-wing senators at the national level (see the radical Supreme Court where several members were not properly vetted and have major ethics violations), in Congress itself where many who helped plan or participated in some fashion with the January 6 insurrection, to a Justice Department who has refused to hold the planners of the insurrection accountable (or candidates, private citizens, and corporations accountable for the multitude of laws being broken). That is how a lack of good character impacts all every day.

That said, it is on us voters (and those of you who are apathetic and just don’t vote), for the mess we are in. It is our character that has allowed people who lack character (and morals and ethics) to gain elected office, and as a by product, appointed roles. Because we haven’t fully vetted and become informed about candidates by reading, watching, and listening to multiple sources of information in our information rich society. If you only watch Fox News or MSNBC, you only get a biased perspective. If you only read the New York Times or the New York Post, you only get a biased perspective. If you only listen to Bannon’s War Room or Politics War Room, you only get a biased perspective. This is where critical thinking and discernment come into play, which I must say is sorely lacking in American society.

One can rely on any news source one wants, but if you want to be truly informed, we must get our news and information from a variety of perspectives, those who agree and those who disagree with us. In reality, we need to go to the source, not the pundits.

What I mean by that is we must watch the totality of a rally by Harris and by Trump. We must watch the totality of an interview with Harris or with Trump. We must truly pay attention to what is being said or not said. We must take it upon ourselves to visit the websites of any candidate to see what they are saying on it, along with their Twitter and other social media feeds. We must also read the documents associated with a candidate, such as Project 2025 (this one most especially as it will affect every aspect of our lives). Yes it is a lot of work, but otherwise we are getting someone else’s perspective and bias.

Which brings me back to character. At this time, we have candidates across the country who partook in the planning and carrying out of the insurrection on January 6. We have all seen the actual video footage and heard the actual words of that day. We have actual prosecutions, admission of guilt, and convictions of those who carried out the orders of the day. We have the actual Project 2025 document. We have websites by the candidates. We have actual video of political rallies, interviews, and town halls. The whole of those are the reality, not the sound bites we get 24/7/365.

Our character as individuals and the character of our nation is on the line. The reality is we do have a prosecutor and a felon running for president. One has been in the courtroom to bring the bad guys down and help we the 99%, the other has been in the courtroom as the bad guy and been convicted as a bad guy looking out for himself. One stands for democracy, the rule of law, and lifting people up. One stands for wanting to be dictator on day one, for having a purge like day to take care of those who disagree with him or is different from him, and buddying up with other dictators around the world. One wants peace in the Middle East, one is working to continue the war. One wants to protect democracy around the globe, one has said one nation can do whatever the hell it wants to another nation. One laughs and brings joy, the other doesn’t seem to ever laugh and brings gloom and doom. One wants to lift us all up for a better life, the other says we are the trash heap of the world. One has created a modern family filled with love, and one who rarely acknowledges he has a family.

Only one has been convicted of fraud against others, has a reputation for not paying contractors, has said he worked the system to not pay employees overtime, has been proven to have had top secret documents unsecured and refused to give back, has said he would like to date his daughter if she weren’t his daughter, was friends and a frequent passenger of Jeffrey Epstein who is a known human sex trafficker, has advocated violence at rallies, bragged about taking the rights away from a class of citizens, and wants to have generals like Hitler had.

All elections are about character, and most especially this one. Not only the character of the candidates, but the character of each of us as voters. We can collectively choose which candidate to put as the head of our nation (and also those from dog catcher to Congress and everything in between). That is our right and duty as citizens of our country. Our vote has consequence for our futures, but also for the future of the world as we are the leaders of the free world.

You can vote for someone who admires Hitler’s generals and wants to punish anyone who doesn’t support him, and all the other bad baggage that was described above. Who has a concept of a plan, but no actual plan except revenge and chaos. If you do, that says a lot about your character, or lack thereof.

You can vote for a third party who we all know will never win the White House, but will most likely help elect Trump, whom even his former staff member has stated is a Facist. If you do, that says a lot about your character in this time of survival of our nation.

You can vote for someone who has talked about nothing except lifting the nation up and specifically stated how, who believes in benefiting us all, not the top 1%, the oligarchs. If you do, that says a lot about your character, that you truly believe in our democracy and freedoms for all.

All of this is just my own opinion and my own concept of character. So what do I know? I know right from wrong, good from bad, hope from despair, freedom from suppression.

The question to be answered over the next nine days and a wake-up is, do you?

P.S.—As election day approaches, make sure to check your voter registration status. Republicans across the nation are purging voter rolls, kicking hundreds of thousands of people off voter rolls, thus hindering their legal right to vote. Check your status at vote.org at least weekly to make sure you have time to take any necessary action to have your vote counted should you no longer show as being registered.