The Parrot Sketch - Monty Python's The Flying Circus

I don't handle frustration well. I doubt if many do. I'm usually patient in most things but the 2016 elections have tested me sorely, as I suspect they have most people. America is at the edge of an abyss and we are about to elect a leader to either take us away from it or push us over the edge. Sadly, neither presidential candidate appears capable of leading us to safety. As I've squabbled with friends and family, I've begun to feel like John Cleese in the Monty Python sketch wherein he is attempting to return a dead parrot to the store where he purchased it, and the clerk appears deaf and blind to his pleas.

Few actually support their candidate with any enthusiasm. Both camps seems dismayed by the person carrying their banner into this contest. Certainly, there are some few who see their choice as unblemished, and these are the most exasperating.

There are those who are convinced the Donald Trump is capable, even likely, to spark a nuclear conflagration if placed in charge. We've heard this fear before. Remember the Goldwater vs. Johnson race of 1964. The Democrats convinced many that Goldwater was an irresponsible hawk who would surely leaded us into the nuclear holocaust. We the People elected Johnson and he started the war in Vietnam. He then escalated it into one of America's costliest wastes of life and treasury. The same was said of Ronald Reagan. Many referred to him as the “Cowboy President”. Not only did he avoid war, but also helped destroy the Iron Curtain thereby ending the Cold War and leading America into the longest sustained period of economic prosperity.

Then there are those who excuse the criminal misbehavior of Hillary Clinton as being no more or less offensive than any other politician. After all, they contend, all politicians are corrupt. Really? How do we keep reelecting the same scoundrels if we believe they're all crooked? Are We the People that stupid? Of course, not all think she has committed criminal acts. These are the most clueless of all. Despite repeated attempts to explain the difference between evidence and rumor, investigation and indictment, criminal acts and guilt, they defend her in the face of all opposition. They are ineducable. And thus I find myself in the same predicament as the customer trying to return the dead parrot.

I've tried walking away. I have several times. But I keep being sucked back into the maelstrom. These people, the ones arguing the loudest, are the most likely voters. If they prevail, then We the People will have the government they deserve and so will we.