Fear or Hope? Americans Will Choose in November

If you thought the news was filled with mindless dribble about the election up till now, get ready because the din is about to be unbearable for the next 100 days or so. We can absolutely expect to see a lot of both candidates as they try to convince voters that their view of the future will better serve the public.

Each candidate has tons of baggage, and we have never seen a pair of potential presidents who have unfavorables as high as Trump and Clinton. Neither of them are well liked by a majority of the electorate, and both have issues with the truth. However, one wants to drive the country over a cliff and pick up the pieces where they lie and the other wants to work together to make sure we build a bridge to get us to the other side of the mountain.

At the RNC's "odd" convention, millions of Americans watched as Trump's Republican party tried to convince the nation -- quite successfully, I might add -- that we are on the road to destruction, that it's midnight in America and only Trump can, to continue the metaphor from above, work as an airbag to save the car that Obama drove over the cliff.

Last week Secretary Clinton made the opposite case, and her allies and supporters came together to show the nation a different side of the Democratic Party. Where Trump's convention was dark and focused on doom and gloom, Clinton's was the exact opposite. It was hopeful, it built the nation up, and focused on what's good in our world, not just on what our problems are. We even saw a Democratic hero, President Barack Obama, make direct appeals to moderate Republicans when he quoted President Ronald Regan's "America is a beacon of light on a hill" speech.

All that positivity drove Trump to distraction, especially when NYC's previous mayor, billionaire Mike Bloomberg, backed Hillary and the ratings for the DNC were considerably higher than the RNC the week before. The world is a wacky place, but many of us hold on to our faith that the sane will prevail and Trump will be kept away from the codes for the nukes.

To be fair, Clinton is not perfect. She's had some issues with transparency over the years that many have labeled dishonest. She has been a near-constant target from the right wing and has been engulfed in scandal after scandal, but none of it has taken her down. Her tenacity and desire to do good for the American people has shined through despite the fact that she has been turned into a caricature of who she actually is.

It's easy to forget that at the end of the day, she goes home to her family just like the rest of us. That she adores her grandkids and wants what is best for them. She was forced to watch her husband be tried for getting a blow job and wasn't allowed to be seen as the victim. Even recently, the right including the Donald, have accused her of attacking the very women who tried to destroy her marriage. No one points out that Bill was lying to her too, or the toll that must have taken on her family as they were forced to come to terms with the fallout of the affair and the resulting impeachment. But she didn't quit, she didn't let the negativity paralyze her or keep her from coming back. She has an innate desire to work for the common good, and that stands in stark comparison to what Trump is all about.

So this coming November, despite the fact that there are two candidates running for the nation's top job, there really isn't a choice. We can't let fear and despair monopolize our politics, if we do, we prove that we haven't learned from the mistakes of nations who already traveled down this road, to disastrous consequences. That's not who we are.

I will leave you with the words of my favorite president, John Kennedy, when he spoke of the city on the hill, long before President Regan did (Melania Trump much, President Regan?):

"I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier. "We must always consider," he said, "that we shall be as a city upon a hill--the eyes of all people are upon us."

-JFK 1961