WARNING! Political Post Ahead!

With the political conventions finally getting here and more and more news surrounding the upcoming November elections, it is difficult to remain silent.

Although I will continue to try to keep from being too harshly critical of the politics of others here, most of what is in the news this week just boggles my mind.

When Ronald Reagan changed political parties from Democrat to Republican, he said that he didn't leave the Democratic Party; the Party left him. That's pretty much how I have felt about the Republican Party over the last decade or so. I'm still registered as a Republican but haven't really voted that way since GWB's first term.

I don't think that Donald Trump is bringing the party back to what it was. I'm not sure where he fits.
I know part of the attraction to him is that he is not a politician and doesn't fit within the current GOP mold.
But, WOW!

Most of the anti-Hillary crowd talks about her lies and say they can't trust her but then go support a guy that lies and isn't trustworthy!

As for me, I find myself in pretty much the same predicament as most of the US.
The Democratic Party is moving more to the left than I'd like and the Republicans have long ago moved too far to the right. I am not happy with either of the presidential candidates. I am not a fan of voting for the lesser of two evils (and won't approach my vote that way), but would rather vote for the person that I believe will be the best President of the United States. I may actually vote for a third party candidate.

If you're still with me at this point, I'd like to point out that the real power for writing the laws that we are governed by lies with our Congress. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election and a third of the Senate is. I really believe that it is time to get rid of the career politicians in Congress. I feel that most of them are owned by their campaign contributors. I won't be voting to re-elect either of my Missouri reps to Congress this year.

As I have said in the past, the parties seem to be ruled by the extremes and nobody is representing the middle. Getting things accomplished through compromise is a sign of weakness, while gridlock is something that both sides seem to take pride in. Both parties seem only interested in meeting party goals and neither party is interested in what is best for America.

There was a time when I believed that each party just had different ideas of how to accomplish what was best for our country. I no longer believe that. I believe that our current political parties are only out to please the largest campaign donors and care little about what is best for our country.

To my evangelical religious readers that have always used their religion as their litmus test for voting for a particular candidate -- if you vote for Donald Trump, you forever lose that as a reason for casting your vote!
Vote for him if you want, but understand the consequences.

We are still a few months away from our November 8 elections.
I encourage you to study all of our candidates for all of the offices.
Choose the ones that will do the best job -- for the United States of America.

I am going to approach the coming election
--not as a Democrat
--not as a Republican
--not even as an Independent
I am going to approach the coming election as a citizen of this (already) great country and vote for the citizens that I believe will best serve The United States of America.

(end rant)

John <><

PS As always, be kind in your comments.