So he won the big contest? Whatever

       In our society we have all sorts of contests all the time.  We have beauty pageants, sweepstakes, sports competitions, TV game shows, video games, and on and on.  They're mostly just for fun, and of course often the winner gets something valuable, even if it's just a trophy and bragging rights.  And yes, I too love being a competitor in some exciting contest of skills, brains, or strategy as much as they next guy. 

     Why am I bringing this up, you ask?  Because there's this other contest that we have regularly called an election.  I hear that there's a really big one coming up next year - something about a "president" or something.  I understand that the competitors put a huge amount of time and money and other resources into It, and forfeit an awful lot of sleep.  And the winner becomes rather famous.

      Personally, I'm not impressed with any of it.  When it comes right down to it, elections are really all about money, marketing, image, style, popularity, and 30-second TV ads.  It would be nice if elections were really all about policy, philosophy, statesmanship, and communication skills, and whether the person truly would be a good role model with sufficient honor and integrity to positively reflect upon the political entity he or she was supposedly representing.  
      And if would be nice if voters actually considered these important aspects of a candidate and made their choice accordingly.  But of course that is not the case.  Do you doubt me?  Look at the vulgar, inept, immature, despicable bigot that the voters selected last time around.

      The whole charade reminds me of the contests we held back in high school for Homecoming King and Queen, or the Most Popular, Most Likely To Succeed, and so forth.  (Although, I must confess, someone with Trump's personality would probably never be elected as Homecoming King.)

      So spare me all the baloney about how so-and-so holds some really important political office and I'm supposed to bow down before them or something.  He won a friggin POULARITY CONTEST, for gosh sakes.  What's so special about that?  As I explained in my article "The President's power, or the lack thereof", even if the winner gets to be the President of the United States, he really doesn't have that much control over what really goes on.