(Warning … this is a personal rant. Feel free to rant back.)
I love the U.S.—the principles on which our country was founded, our constitution, freedoms, and diversity. I hate politics. Never have these statements been truer for me than in this political season. On second thought … I recall feeling much the same in presidential election years past.

Why is it that candidates can’t simply release documents—fact-checked, of course—disclosing their backgrounds, qualifications for president, and their positions on the issues; disseminate this material to every U.S. household; and let voters study the documents, decide which candidate’s beliefs coincide most with their own, and then vote accordingly? (Of course, you’d have to count on the politicians to commit to positions and give up flip-flopping according to which way the voting wind is blowing.)

Why, oh why do we have to have all of this worse-than-counterproductive, down-and-dirty, schoolyard fighting, and name-calling? Frankly, I find it embarrassing. The U.S. supposedly is a developed, civilized, cultured nation, but our politicians behave as if they are ready to go outside, duke it out, and let the best fighter win. Where is the theory of evolution as it applies to politics? Nothing seems to change.

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