Will the nightmare ever end?

I am disgusted.

I can no longer sit idly by and assume that sanity will return before November. I spent the last 2 Presidential elections assuming that the gaping holes I saw in the Republican candidate, namely Mr. Bush, were visible to everyone who profess to care about our country. In 2000, I looked at Bush's record as Governor of Texas and was appalled! This man had no qualms about executing prisoners, even when their guilt was in question. I felt that if Bush could not find compassion for potentially innocent prisoners, he would not care for people "less fortunate". However, with the collusion of the Mainstream media, I watched in horror as the Republican machine lied its way to power, and again in 2004.

And now, McCain and Palin are possibly going to lie their way into power and continue the disaster of the past 7 years. McCain and Palin now bitch and moan about the "liberal" media. I don't know what media they are talking about, because the only liberal I see is Keith Olbermann, and he has been sidelined for the election coverage. As far as I can see, the Right and its agents receive overwhelming positive spin and support. While, Obama, receives either no coverage, limited coverage or derisive coverage. Liberal my a**?

The insidious nature of this method of covering the candidates ensures only one outcome - the voice of the few overruling the voice of the many.

What makes me insane about all this that otherwise rational and sane people end up thinking there is no viable alternative to Bush or McCain. For instance, I have a friend who has worked for years in the inner city schools and in ordinary circumstances has great compassion for African American students, but she swallows the email campaigns and the whisper campaigns, hook line and sinker. And while she is as disgusted with Bush (after the fact), she can't make the leap between what she reads and sees and buys into the hype.

Frankly, there should be ethical constraints on reporters and reporting. If the past 7 years have taught anything, it is that the press should be forced to disclose bias and conflict of interest up front. No longer should a reporter be able to skew a story toward one candidate or another without fully disclosing the intent of the reporter or the corporation they report to.

And that brings me to another pet peeve. And this only has to do incidentally with the press. I am a Mormon. And while many of my "people" are republicans, and "tow the party line", I want to ask, "ARE YOU ON GLUE???" The religious right HATES us. They think we, Mormons, are EVIL. Why in hell would I ally myself with a group who sees, not just my religion, but ME as evil? As I watched Mitt Romney at the RNC, I noticed that he had no problem rolling around in the hatred mud, but seemed to be oblivious to how much the evangelical Christians disdain everything Mitt stands for. Talk about being of "two minds".

Whenever I hear one of my "people" blather on about Bush, and now McCain, I ask them how they reconcile the fact that the religious right hates them, and has no use for them or their beliefs. Most are completely floored. Somehow, the rank hatred the right spews toward Mormons slips their minds.

Good God! Will this nightmare ever end??