Campaigns are Supposed be about the People, not the Candidates

(Source: Youtube)

Presidential campaigns, and all campaigns for elected office for that matter, are supposed to be about the issues that affect the people of this country and ways to improve their lives, but instead this presidential campaign, one in which issues have certainly been discussed to some degree, has increasingly focused on the candidates themselves and their real or imagined most recent indiscretions or some other acts of shame or embarrassment.

What we get are lots of recriminations, character attacks, and innuendo. We’re overloaded by the latest gossip or the newest information to hit the airways about what is wrong with the personal character or the personal relationships of the opponent or even those of the opponent’s spouse but not about what the candidates actually stand for and how those policies are going to make a difference in the lives of American citizens.

                                                                                  

(Source: TMZ.com)

In this cycle, we learned that Trump has wandering hands with the opposite sex and has a habit of describing his exploits in shockingly graphic terms; we were informed that Clinton has a fluid definition of honesty and has apparently no problem casually putting the nation at risk by playing fast and furiously with classified information and on and on goes the interminable list of deplorables.

                                                                                  

(Source: Valley News Live)

We all have been over exposed to XXX content like I have never seen during any presidential election cycle in my lifetime and are updated on the cable news networks on a nearly ‘round the clock basis about the latest sex, lies, emails, and video tapes, as though we’re talking about the latest new reality thriller or an innovative news magazine or tabloid.  

                                                                                  

(Source: Washington Post)

But, alas, we are not! It’s real life. What we all too infrequently hear about these days, from either of the 2016 presidential candidates, is the very simple idea of what are these people going to do to make the lives of ordinary people in this country better? This is a message so many would like to hear after the economic difficulties of the last 8 or so years but is one made elusive by an improper focus on character attacks and the various irrelevants.