How to choose this year’s president

Many people on social media are inundating me with political propaganda this month; I myself have been guilty of sharing a few tidbits and I get it: you want your candidate to win, or you hate them both and want to rebel.

The problem is that 90% of this stuff is pure rubbish (or satire) on both sides.

So who do you root for when both options make you want to hold your nose?

Hillary’s integrity issues are completely different from Mr. Trump’s, but by themselves they are deeply repugnant to many of us. While Hillary’s skeletons have until recently been under lock and key, Trump has played out each and every one of his melodramatic personal blunders and predatory business dealings in the gleaming light of the public eye.

This doesn’t really paint the idyllic scene we were hoping for, but it is the result of our own choices because we want to admit it or not; as a people, we ultimately control how it ends.

If you didn’t want Trump or Hillary, the time to decide that was during the primaries, so there’s really no one to blame but ourselves for this lose-lose election that we have this year.

So what do we do with this choice? I can’t believe it’s come to this, but: ignoring integrity… That’s right. There is little to be had on either side, so if your most important quality in a leader is integrity, then your candidate never made it out this year.

Instead, look at these qualities and make your decision:

• Who gives you the Supreme Court options you want?
• Who gives you the immigration policy you want?
• Who defends the social policies they appreciate?

The list goes on and on, but the point is that this year, character has been left out. So what do we have left? We really have only one defining question left: What will they do for or for the country if they win?

Many of you hate one or both and foam at the mouth pointing out all their flaws on both sides, but it doesn’t make sense. To some degree, that can be personally cathartic, but we all have an A vs. B choice to make this year unless you choose some other option and effectively remove yourself from the process and let the rest of us choose for you… Heck, as much as half the nation sits out of almost every election and not even bothering to sign up, so what’s a few million more watching from the sidelines huddled with their favorite losing cause?

The choice is pretty clear when you look at the policies that each candidate promotes. It doesn’t matter which side I’m on personally, integrity this year won’t be a factor because they’re both critically flawed people and they make us pray to God that whatever choice we make doesn’t go terribly wrong for everyone in the end.

It does not matter that; One thing is almost always true: you’re not going to change my mind and I can’t change yours either, but at least let’s be adults about it and have a civil conversation. Stop hurling insults at each other just because we chose one “bad choice” over the other. Let’s not be like our current candidates; let’s be civil to one another and respect each other’s choices in how we exercise our collective right to vote our own conscience.

You may think I’m an idiot and I may think some people are confused and betrayed, but our choice of policy doesn’t make us good or bad, it just makes us Americans; doing the best we can with what we have.

I have seen family members disown each other over political views and that is pure nonsense. When the dust settles, we’re all in this together and for better or worse; we will all end up paying the same price for our collective decision in the end, whatever it is.

Ultimately, you will do one of three things: hold your nose and say A or B, or run away from the decision and sit back and watch the rest of us choose for you. Do not fool yourself; electing another candidate IS being left out.

Just remember: every time we make a decision, the people of this country put themselves on the line, and the hope we all share is that by coming together as a nation to exercise that right, we too can help make this nation better and stronger for all. us and our children too.

God bless the voters; all the world…