How to Pick This Year's President

Many folks on social media are inundating me with political propaganda this month; I've been guilty of sharing a few tidbits myself and I get it: You want your candidate to win, or you hate both of them and want to revolt.

The problem is that 90% of this stuff is pure garbage (or satire) from both sides.

So who do you support when both options make you want to hold your nose?

Hillary's integrity issues are completely different, from Mr. Trump's, but they are on their own merit deeply repugnant to many of us just the same. While Hillary's skeletons have until recently been under lock and key behind closed doors, Trump has played out each and every one of his personal melodramatic gaffes & predatory business dealings in the gleaming light of the public eye.

This really doesn't paint the idyllic scene we hoped for, but it is the result of our own choices because whether we want to admit it or not; as a people we do ultimately control how it ends.

If you didn't want Trump or Hillary, the time for deciding that was during the primaries, so there's really nobody to blame but ourselves for this lose-lose choice we have this year.

So what do we do with this choice? I can't believe it's come to this, but: ignore integrity... That's right. There is little to be had on either side, so if your most important quality in a leader is integrity, then you candidate never made it out of the gate this year.

Instead, look at these qualities and make your decision:

• Who gives you the Supreme court choices you want?
• Who gives you the immigration policy you want?
• Who champions the social policies you cherish?

The list goes on and on, but the point is that this year, character has been thrown aside. So what are we left with? We are truly left with only one defining question: What will they do for or to the country if they win?

Many of you hate one or both of them and are foaming at the mouth to point out their every flaw on either side, but it's pointless. To some degree that can be personally cathartic, but we all have an A vs. B choice to make this year unless you choose some other option and effectively remove yourself from the process & allow the rest of us to choose for you... Heck, as much as half the nation sits out nearly every election and doesn't even bother to register, so what's a few million more watching from the sideline snuggling with their favorite lost cause?

The choice is fairly clear when you look at the policies each candidate promotes. No matter which side you personally stand behind, this year integrity will not be a factor because they are both critically flawed people and make all of us pray to God that the choice we make won't go horribly wrong for us all in the end.

No matter what; one thing is nearly always certain: You're not going to change my mind and I cannot change yours either, but let's at the very least be adult about it and keep the conversation civil. Stop throwing insults at each other just because we pick one "Bad Choice" over the other. Let's not be like our current candidates; let's be civil with each other and respect each other's choices in the way we each exercise our collective right to vote our own conscience.

You may think I'm an idiot and I may think some folks are confused & betrayed, but our choice of politics doesn't make us good or evil, it just makes us Americans; doing the best we can with what we have.

I've seen family members disown each other over political views and that's pure foolishness. When the dust settles, we are all in this together and good or bad; we will all end up paying the same price for our collective decision in the end, whatever that may be.

You will ultimately do one of three things: hold your nose and chose A or B, or run from the decision and sit it out and watch the rest of us choose for you. Don't kid yourself; choosing some other candidate IS sitting it out.

Just remember: Every time we make a choice, the people of this country take a chance and the hope we all share is that by coming together as a nation to exercise that right, we can also help make this nation better and stronger for all of us, and our children as well.

God bless the voters; every one...

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