Only eight days away. From what, the willing surrender of our government to a felonious flim-flam man? No, that’s 38 days away. And I, for one, consider what happens in thirty-eight days to be a very dark day for we the people. What happens in eight days has to do with light. As in daylight. It’s called the winter solstice, on the 21st of December, after which–incrementally, persistently, and pretty much undetectably in a quotidian measure, daylight will increase for northern hemisphere inhabitants. That positive progression then stops on June 21, when the summer solstice marks its march back toward December 21, a yearly cycle that has no consideration of anything or anyone else. A law of nature. We make the best of it because it is, inexorably, beyond our control.

Then there is what we can control. That being who we entrust with running our government here in the US of A. And ugh, ick and wtf? on January 20, inauguration day when we will get the government we deserve, whether we feel we deserve it or not. We being the sector of the electorate looking to make smart choices. What we are getting is, very unfortunately, the return to politics of the dangerously extreme and divisive, a government that advertised its dystopian agenda a long time ago

Not that I haven’t vented my spleen on the former and again incoming creepy clown show led by the aforementioned felonious felon. Maybe there are those that formally asked for this outcome, by way of voting for it. For others, the perceivable problem IS the flim-flam man’s re-arrival in the White House.

Do we really have any “control” over how our country is run? The Guardian has a report on the reasons given for not voting at all this recent election. Essentially, it’s a combination of the electoral college reducing the outcome of who wins the White House relating to just a handful of “swing states”. Solid blue or red states have virtually predetermined outcomes regarding where their electoral votes will go. A swing state is not as predictable. Thus, countless people in either solid blue or red states felt their vote really wouldn’t matter, so why bother? Clearly, the often derided electoral count needs to be altered or simply eliminated.

Others stated they had nothing to for for, finding either of the long-standing, major, established parties were not concerned with what millions of people felt needed addressing: the cost of education; the cost of healthcare (or any access to such); the ongoing use of fossil fuels and climate chaos; the clearly documented humanitarian crisis in Palestine (and our government’s blatant support for the country committing the atrocities). And other issues that the no-shows cited as why they did not participate in the election. The article put the number of these alienated members of the electorate at 90,000,000! That represents more potential votes than either major candidate received. So while technically, we the people are able to decide who runs the country, the electoral system appears to undermine such a notion, allowing only a handful of states to offer the voter a direct say in election outcomes.

The System is at cross purposes with a truly representative government. I, for one, quit voting for either entrenched political party in the 2000 election. My consistent support for a particular third party is typically met with the rolling of the eyes and the robotic retort of “you’re wasting your vote”. That Guardian article implies that those 90,000,000 non-voters felt they would be wasting their vote on either established candidate. Which also implies that they, too, would want to have seen more than the two choices that were offered. The System, a force of darkness at this point, has rigged the game. It doesn’t care that it turns off as many voters than either major party can turn on. And to make things even darker, this corrupted System made it possible for a convicted felon and rapist, an insurrectionist, an incredibly unfit for office person to win the White House for a SECOND time!!

Keep in mind the System could only produce this morally bankrupt outcome if not for the other major party’s complicity. Why did the 2020 winner not immediately have its Justice Department arrest the treasonous, seditionist, insurrectionist? He should never have been eligible to run for the office he tried to illegally keep. This confounding fact also speaks to the 2024 election that offered someone who clearly is incompetently dangerous to the American public or the incumbent party that did not hold the convicted felon/rapist/insurrectionist to account..For critical thinkers, a non-starter.

We cannot control Mother Nature. Sadly, and almost irrefutably the System is seemingly also beyond our control. But only if we choose to think we do not have any ability to assert control. Supporting a rational, people-first third party is a start. Elect such alternate candidates from the bottom up. Vote out the practitioners of business as usual, quid pro quo and profit and greed over people and the planet.

I know, what a crazy idea. Is he dreaming? Get real. Blah blah. It looks pretty dark out there right now, try to use the soon to come added daylight to see more clearly a political pathway that also can become a brighter outlook on taking control of a System that is no longer a friend to humankind anywhere. The collateral damage of allowing this System to survive is also the matter of the planet we live on. What is more urgent a matter to demand a responsible form of leadership?