The Lull Before the Storm

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Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride. We have only one more day of obnoxious and slanderous television and radio ads to suffer through before we're free, at least for two more years until the next electoral cycle begins. I'll be curious to see how many billions of dollars was wasted, er, ah, "spent" on the media thereby making them even more glutenous and overbearing. God forbid we should spend such exorbitant sums of money on something worthwhile, such as correcting the ills of our country. I am still of the opinion that for every dollar spent on political campaigning, another dollar should be donated to a worthy charity or cause, such as paying off the federal debt. That would take the wind out of the media's sails and actually accomplish something worthwhile to boot.

If the 2012 campaign did anything, it confirmed my belief the electoral process is horribly broken and in need of repair. I cannot think of a campaign in the last fifty years where the truth was so expertly butchered. Suddenly, "fact checkers" are a natural part of our vernacular. Remarkably, the fact checkers themselves need to be checked. The point is, nobody is credible anymore and we are suspicious of the truth regardless of how cold the facts may be. No wonder there are two distinctly different perspectives of the world. At the center of it all is the media, the true winners of the election whose best interests are served by keeping the public in the dark.

The elections on Tuesday will be the only reprieve we will have from the political madness. People will go to their precincts, vote for someone they really do not know, or for an amendment they do not understand. Some will vote based on name recognition alone, and some will vote as Oprah or Jon Stewart wanted them to. Very few will actually know what they are voting for. Yes, I still advocate the concept of voter certification.

We will go to bed proud of fulfilling our civic duty, only to wake up to a nightmare on Wednesday morning. No matter how the presidential election turns out, one half of the country will be unhappy which may very well lead to civil unrest. I remember going to bed on election night in 1976 thinking Gerald Ford had it in the bag, only to wake up to the nightmare of that peanut farmer.

So, enjoy your day off before the festivities begin; catch up on some "ZZZ," maybe take in a movie, have a few drinks, hide your money, stock up on ammo, whatever. After this timely respite, the country is going to be a lot different, one way or another, and a lot of people are not going to like it.

Oh yea, one other thing: If you don't vote, don't bitch. You had your chance.

Keep the Faith!

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Copyright © 2012 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.