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And I don’t think that reality has ever been more true than in the current election cycle.
Now, I’ve been trying to stay away from politics as a topic recently, because I know it’s divisive and the last thing I want to do with this newsletter is annoy anyone.
But today, there’s something stuck in my teeth that I just can’t get rid of — and it’s not biased in any way, because BOTH sides are embarrassing themselves equally badly.
Once upon a time, in America, elections were actually about policy. They were about two candidates arguing with high-minded rhetoric and serious policy proposals to try to win over the hearts and minds of the electorate.
And it was common wisdom that the better arguments and best ideas would decide the election’s outcome.
We got a brief, almost frustrating taste of that during the Vice Presidential debate, a night where, for the first time in over a decade, two politicians who hoped to work in the White House stood on stage with mutual respect and talked about policy.
But over the last week, it’s become clear that policy and rhetoric would not decide this election.
It seems like this election will be decided by whoever says the dumbest thing last.
This week has felt like a game of hot potato, where each campaign is trying to pass the baton of unbelievably self-destructive comments and clips to the opposition.
First, there was the Trump NYC rally last week, where a comedian most of America had never heard of made shameful jokes about several different racial groups, most notably Puerto Ricans. Yes, the Trump campaign has tried to dissociate and pin the blame solely on the comedian, but they set the agenda and invited the speakers and they solely wear the blame.
Then, there was Biden’s now-infamous “garbage” comments. Yes, his administration is trying to spin the comments with a ham-fisted apostrophe. But anyone who seriously listens to the clip knows what he said and what he meant.
Those are just the highlights of a week that have seen foolish comments come out of the mouth of pretty much every politician involved in this campaign.
And I can’t blame them totally. Modern elections are nothing like the high-minded debates of the past, where candidates had a lot of control over when and how they were exposed to the public eye.
There are cameras in the faces of these politicians 24/7, they’re bound to make mistakes sometimes, as all human beings do.
So the fact that they’re making mistakes isn’t the issue (although, they seem to make them with such joy and enthusiasm that it becomes harder to overlook)...
It’s simply the fact that still, even after they’ve proven SO many times to the contrary, huge groups of voters on both sides will walk into a voting booth on Tuesday (if they haven’t already) and cast their ballot for someone they hope to be their personal savior — whether that be politically, financially, socially, or for any other reason they’ve come up with.
It’s sad to me. Because as I’ve said before and will repeat many times: no one actually has your best interests at heart other than you.
So now that I’m done ranting, let me just say, again, that at ProsperityPub, we don’t care who you vote for or where you come from.
But we do want you to be your OWN best advocate, and build a brighter future for yourself… because no one else is gonna do it for you!
I hope you have a great weekend and I’m sure you will join me in excitement for when this whole election cycle is over.
To your Prosperity,
Stephen Ground
Editor-in-Chief, ProsperityPub
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