Editorials & Other Articles

or that we'll have a "free and fair" election. I hate to say this about my country, because I've never missed a voting experience. I've always voted in person, no matter how unhandy it was for me at the time... I saw it not only as casting a vote for who would lead offices of this country, but also as a time to meet and talk with my neighbors, some of whom I only ever saw at the polls!

These days, tho... cheating is rampant... and the ways to cheat are what's competitive, not the offices. Can one party out cheat the other? I want to say there's never been any cheating on the part of the Democratic Party, but with what we're up against with the Repugs and their myriad and rampant ways of cheating, in a way that makes me sad, too. But I think there's a lot of people out here like me... who believe in voting and believe that ALL citizens are required to vote their conscience, no exceptions. Laws must be made that make voting EASIER for all people. That may mean a day national "voting day" where all businesses are closed or employees are rotated half on call and half off so that they can vote easily. It also means MORE help for the disabled. In this country, as of today, I also feel it requires investigation prior to voting, and monitoring while voting occurs. Laws which MAGA have seen fit to do away with on their side, but not ours... such as signs and campaigning within a certain number of feet of polling places, must once again be enforced for all. And MAGA isn't going to like that... they'll scream bloody murder that it's another form of censorship and victimhood. But we... Democrats and Independents and open minded Republicans... are going to have to learn to tune out their crocodile tears. This is where outside monitoring could help, IMO.

I've been saying for years the brain drain for America is going to be horrible because of Trump. Hell, if I was younger, stronger, and still working I'd have been gone before now. Today, I tend to feel more panic about living here than hope. That's not a good attitude, IMO, even while I work to try to change it.