By Ray Cardello for September 14, 2024, Season 28 / Post 36

The amount of negative information we are barraged with daily is enough to make the most stable people anxious. The economy, border, crime, and inflation are the topics that dominate the 24-hour news cycle. Elections have gotten more volatile in recent years, but this one between Trump and Harris seems exceedingly so. We look to the candidates for solutions, but all we find is finger-pointing. We are in a leadership void, and personalities have become more important than results. Donald Trump said it well in a recent interview with Sean Hannity. “You may not like me. You may even hate me. But, you must vote for me.” What Trump meant was you need to look at his administration’s results and whether you were better off four years ago than today or you will be four years from now if Kamala Harris is elected. Even Harris would have to say yes. When Kamala was asked that exact question to open the Trump/Harris debate, she did not answer. She deflected to a different talk track because if she had to answer directly, she would have to say no.

The debate should have been an exchange of ideas, policies, and positions, but instead, it was a chess match and competition to get under each other’s skin. Instead of informative, it was anxiety filled. Many people I spoke with said they shut it off after the first hour. It was repetitive, personal, and a let down from the hype.

Most of the cable news programming is not unbiased news reporting, but opinionated endorsements for their candidate. I typically watch a four square screen with FOX, CNN, MSNBC, and BBC. When they report on a particular event, you would think there were two distinct events. On every station, the attacks on the opposition party are nonstop. The facts or video clips are carefully edited to fit a narrative so that anyone who uses one of these networks as their exclusive source for the news is getting a filtered perspective. This is the leading cause of the divide in society. I have had conversations about laws passed in Maine and have been called a liar or accused of distorting the facts. It is tantamount to taking a test but studying two different textbooks.

This plethora of negativity will drain your emotional resources. People will either absorb it all and be anxious or depressed, or they will tune out and be ignorant of the reality around them. The ignorant are the problem, and the voters who will use their ballot to support their personality of choice and not the best person to solve the nation’s issues.

We need to step back. We need to hit the pause button. I was surfing around YouTube and came across a young country singer. He loves to write songs about spirituality and patriotism, so there is a real good chance you never heard of Thomas Mac. The song I came upon was called “This is still America,” it was a great tune and made sense.

The gist of the song was that no matter who wins in November, whether it is your choice or not, we will be okay. This message may be simplistic, but it is true. We are Americans at our core. We may have different views, but the bottom line is we bleed red, white, and blue. When you go to the hospital for a procedure and need blood, you don’t ask if it came from a Democrat or Republican. You are only concerned about your type period.

With about 50 days left until the election, this may be the perfect time to hit the red pause button. There will be plenty of time to get back to the news.