Sometimes, a book will color your perspective forever. Such a book for me was The $elling of the President 1968 by the late Joe McGinniss. He changed the way we look at elections. Some professors would tell us that elections are contests between “philosophies and visions.” Others explain that elections are contests between mere personalities. McGinniss would argue elections are marketing contests, like the sales campaigns of Tide detergent compared with OxiClean detergent. Election outcomes simply reflect marketing competence and advertising budgets, with a very slight nod toward any “philosophies and visions.”

Still, it is hard not to get caught up in the falderal on both sides. Partisans get very animated! Democrats tend to see elections as contests between smart and stupid, while Republicans tend to see elections as contests between good and evil. There’s a big difference in those two perspectives.

As a boy, I remember my father telling me that Americans shouldn’t vote if they don’t watch the news faithfully, but that was before news-bias was automatically assumed and before Americans complained of election-fatigue.

Voting is a privilege, an honor, and a duty . . . it is also a marathon . . . of commercials/advertisements/opinions & half-truths!