More and More Bummed Out on Politics

In a recent article I compared the frenzied fervor of so many people's campaigns for elected "public service" in this year's election cycle to the nefarious Rings of Power in J.R.R. Tolkien's epic trilogy Lord of the Rings.  Maybe the nine evil power-craving Nazgul don't line up with candidates you see as being oh-so caring, principled and selfless...as opposed to those jerks on the "other" side.  But I at least...even if you don't...see that craving for control everywhere, and quite frankly, I'm having a bit of difficulty "liking" anyone who's running. This is especially true regarding the two main candidates for President this year...I can't remember disliking both major party nominees since Nixon ran for reelection against McGovern in 1972...that was the last election I was too young to vote in.  Yet one of them is a 34-count convicted felon who is on audio persuading, while president, a swing state's election official to manufacture eleven thousand nonexistent votes to throw that state's election in his favor.   The other candidate, whose main attraction is that she isn't the crook she's running against, wins my vote by default without even trying.  But like I said before, it all comes down in the end to the last-minute, emotionally-motivated undecided voters who doubtless will be swayed by some contrived nonsense to determine the next president.  So when people approach me in ANY setting with politics as if it were some sacred institution, I am getting increasingly hostile...and properly so...