So, who are you going to vote for president in November?

I cannot remember an election with so much violence, so much hatred, so many lies, so much propaganda that has polarized everyone around the world.

In short, welcome to the 2016 Fear Games.

Usually I avoid talking with strangers about politics, religion, immigration, affirmative action or anything else that can blow up in my face depending on their perspective. In a country that declares that it is the land of the free and the home of the brave, we are showing to the world that we are anything but free and brave.

I don’t know who to believe anymore.

Major news networks are blatantly biased one way or another, even failing to report on major news stories that may shed a positive light on an adversarial candidate. People post videos claiming dramatic and “shocking” behavior by a candidate and the video is void of such behavior.

It is almost like people are purposely seeing how big a lie they can tell and get away with it. This seems to be happening on all sides of the fence. Shame on us.

The 2016 Fear Games are undeniably in full swing, and people are seeing unprecedented violence by critics of candidates against people who are exercising their Constitutional Rights by attending a rally to support the candidate. I am talking about the lodestone of controversy, Donald Trump.

This is a man who purportedly is a law-abiding citizen that cares about his employees and country that has decided to say the most rabble-rousing nonsense ever heard from a podium. People come to his rallies for the single purpose of violence and disruption and claim they are exercising their constitutional rights to do so.

The only reason that this man is gaining in popularity and may even win the Presidential election is he is feeding on fear. 

A trait we as a country (for the most part) say we hate. It is ironic that we even use the word hate to support our lack of support for the fear mongers.

There is a spiritual principal that life will keep bringing the lesson until we learn it. There is no doubt in my mind that we are learning the lesson of fear and we are the slowest, most dull-witted students in history.

How many times do we have to have this lesson of those who manipulate our minds and pocketbooks through fear?

There was Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin, Bin Laden, Hussein, Khadafy, Khrushchev, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, Idi Amin, and on and on and on and that is just in the last century.

The bigger question is how do we deal with this fear?

We are manifesting this election for a reason, and that reason is to recognize the fear that we all suppress within ourselves. We have to find our sense of humor. One of the biggest jokes I have ever heard is the Mexican wall promoted by Trump. I belly laugh every time someone brings that joke up.

The man is clearly playing on the fear we have of foreign and illegal immigrants. I laugh both at the idea and the realization that people are taking him seriously. If a 6-year-old came out with that sort of nonsense, he would probably be sent to his room for a time out.

Yet people are giving into their most basic of instincts, fear, and supporting this nonsense with the justification that, “There isn’t enough to go around for everyone and I’m gonna make sure I get mine before we run out.”

Instead of blaming our economic woes on our neighbors (read: denial), we should focus on the positive benefits of accepting these people into our country.

Don’t let a Presidential candidate manipulate your fears. Count to ten and just say “No“ to their kool-aid. If we let our irrational emotions drive our voting decisions we’ve silently asked for a super-sized cup of electric kool-aid.

When did we decide to not say “no”?

I had a wonderful reading by a fingerprint expert at the New Life Expo in New York City that brought to my attention that one of my life challenges was to say “no”. I had to agree that I don’t say “no” when I should, either because I am afraid someone won’t like me or I may lose something.

We need to say “no” to these Presidential candidates who are creating such animosity, such acrimony and such hatred in the election process. We have the power to do this and it’s not going to happen by throwing our hands in the air and casting our vote into the wind.

We can stop supporting people who create conflict. This applies to not only the Trumps of the world but also the people who try to stop them with violence. We have lost our minds if we think we are going to control people with violence.

That is absurd.

We also need to say “no” to media who spout nonsense and propaganda that only serves to create more violence.

I vow to not review any new stories that criticize any political candidate. I want to elect the candidate that reflects my beliefs and desires for this country, not vote against someone because the media lies about them.

Are you paying attention to this? 

Someone is pulling our strings. I don’t know if it is the “Illuminati”, the aliens, the banking families, or just the media trying to sell tripe. The only way we are going to elect someone that will lead us away from war, violence and poverty and towards unity, prosperity and cooperation is to focus on unity, prosperity and cooperation in our own lives.

If we don’t start saying “no”, we are dooming ourselves to another four years of complete chaos. I always have observed that we elect who we deserve.

Do we deserve Trump, Cruz, Clinton or Sanders? I hope not.

Until the majority of us stand up with courage and integrity and say “enough!”, we are going to keep getting what we are getting.

The change has to start with us. We are not cattle. We are voters and we need to make it count.

Happy 2016 Fear Games.

~

Author: James Robinson

Editor: Sara Kärpänen

Photo: AK Rockefeller / Flickr 

Featured photo:by Ryne Slater / Pixoto