A refund is the return of a payment of a full amount owed. Well, if you watch the news and read the papers, they all are giving refunds on the presidential debate the other night. The bias is so thick you can cut it with a … refund.
The media again.
{mosads}Call me naive, but I watched the debate, I heard what they said, and what they didn’t say. I am a fairly intelligent and informed American and I know hyperbole when I hear it. I can read facial expressions. I know nuance. I know a bold faced lie when I hear one. I know the truth when I hear it. I know a good “gotcha” moment when I see it, however fair or unfair it is.
Sometimes it produces a good laugh, sometimes it’s very embarrassing. But I can be just as easily fooled as the next guy, and that’s only because I want to believe in “truth, justice and the American way.”
Like the fizz on the top of your soft drink settles when first poured, so does the residue of this debate settle as we begin to assess what we are about to drink or not drink. Beware the purple kool-aid.
If you turned the TV off right after the debate and just let it all sink in you’d probably come to your own informed or uninformed conclusions as to who you would like to be your next president …
That’s “President of the United States of America, Leader of the Free World.” Keep that in mind, however important it is to you. And that’s the real issue isn’t it. How important is it to you?
Let’s assume it’s of average importance relative to all the things that make up your life.
If you kept the TV on and listened to the “fizz” that the media is paid to keep fizzing, you heard everything from misguided opinions, biased opinions, opinions from pundits and news people who must have their ears painted on to downright proffered opinions and assessments by Team Trump & Team Clinton shills and people who are tendered to us as “in the know.”
After you sort it all out and come to a well earned and exhaustive conclusion in your own mind, someone else, one of these TV people or journalists comes up with another angle to bend your thinking. You think you had it right, then, wham! another bomb shell and set of issues to explore.
No wonder I’m still undecided. It’s because I left the TV on and watched and listened to the well informed media folk fizz their way into my psyche. Or I keep reading the newspapers. My instincts and intuition are being constantly bombarded by … fizz!
So, here’s Hillary, experienced, but “bad experience” according to Mr. Trump. And arguably a good point. And here’s Donald, a no-nonsense businessman, but “crazy” according to Mrs. Clinton. Also, arguably a good point.
It’s a 50/50 dead heat right now, so Trump’s “crazy” is equal to Hillary’s “bad experience.” What will be the tiebreaker?
So, the facts are all in by now. Assuming we know all the good and bad about both candidates, their experience, their crazy, their policies, beliefs and innermost motivational desires to be President of the United States of America and Leader of the Free World with all the associated perks and benefits, their dirty laundry, what are we left with to make that final decision?
What if it comes down to just one vote? What if it’s me? Worse, what if it’s you!?
Maybe a good way to make the final decision on who will be President is to imagine in your mind what the White House would look like with each family in residence. Picture in your mind either Hillary or Donald behind JFK’s desk in the Oval Office. Statesman or Chump?
Picture either candidate waving to the proletariat at the top of the steps as he or she boards Air Force One. Picture in your mind either candidate consoling a parent of fallen soldier, or making a photo op appearance at some natural disaster. A mass shooting.
We can’t really ask for a refund once this is all over. I don’t think we can even ask for a recount unless it does come down to one hanging chad vote.
Here’s maybe the best way to decide. Just assume it all comes down to your one solitary, individual, well informed vote. It’s all on your shoulders.
So, don’t bother me with the facts. The facts are all in, we don’t need any more facts. The facts have brought us to the 50/50 tie. And no more biased, celebrity opinions, please. If there is any more dirty laundry to be seen, let’s see it now. Trump has already alluded to something about the Clinton family he says is “too bad” to expose. Let’s hear it now.
It soon will be too late to ask for a refund.
What are you going to do?
Vote, but have a good backup plan.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.