“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”
                                                                                                                        George Orwell
 
                     “Those who trade the truth for alibis will dine on sand at the banquet of the damned.”
                                                                                                                        Max M. Golden
 
Here is yet another way to view this election choice through all the noise. 
 
Nations only drift if people drift. Election time is always a litmus test for truth and drift. It presents a good opportunity for self examination. Am I part of the drift?  A militant drifter? A passive, silent go-with-the-flow drifter? Or am I standing amid the rising tide, willing to take the pressure, prejudice and even persecution? 

Will my vote promote drift? Or resist it and restore something lost by drifting? Beyond my vote and this election cycle, does my life promote drift? Or resist it and restore something essential? 
 
In these “modern", “progressive” times, is drift inevitable because all things, including truth, are movable? If there is no center, nothing truly sacred and immovable to drift away from, then resistance is as futile and meaningless as the drift. And we are all destined to dine on sand and sing along to - who else?  The Drifters:
 
They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway
They say there's always magic in the air
But when you're walkin' down that street
And you ain't had enough to eat
The glitter rubs right off and you're nowhere
 
 
www.billyspraguemusic.com/blog
www.billyspraguemusic.com/leader-vs-politician.html
 

Using only their own words, let’s play FIND THE DISSONANCE..  (No, not DJT or HRC’s words.)
 
“Without the right to and reverence for life, Liberty becomes tyranny, even decimation, and the pursuit of happiness rings hollow in the halls of history and hell.”        Max M. Golden
 
“All of our problems are the result of overbreeding among the working class, and if morality is to mean anything at all to us, we must regard all the changes which tend toward the uplift and survival of the human race as moral.”
 
“The most interesting incident of my life was some years ago when I was sitting beside a dying child's bed, watching the pulse and waiting for the crisis. It was about two o'clock in the morning. I started to take the pulse of the child and as I did so, I saw two bodies of the child - one slightly above the other exactly in the same position and an exact replica - except that it was not flesh but a substance more like cob-webs the color of smoke. I stood back and beheld this extraordinary phenomena and watched the upper body move majestically away in a horizontal position across the room and through the closed steel door. The physical body remained and was still breathing. Consciousness was never regained and an hour after, the little girl ceased to breathe.”
 
Birth control means: “the release and cultivation of the better racial elements in our society, and the gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extirpation of defective stocks— those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization.”
 
“…the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”
 
“A farmer would rather produce a thousand thoroughbreds than a million runts. How are we to breed a race of human thoroughbreds unless we follow the same plan? We must make this country into a garden of children instead of a disorderly back lot overrun with human weeds.”
                                                                                       Margaret Sanger  
                                                                                       founder of Planned Parenthood.
   
“…you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 
                                                                            Psalm 139:13-16  King David
 
“…they knew God but did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thought and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. Thinking themselves wise, their foolish hearts were darkened.”  
                                                                           Apostle Paul Romans 1:21,22

MIRACLE ALERT:   Matthew was our first hurricane.  A doozy.  Wyatt turned 17 on the day the storm hit. Memorable present. We decided to evacuate. Loaded up pictures, videos, paintings, guitars, guns, computers, our little dog Lucy Loo Hoo and Sawyer’s 5’ stuffed bear.  Headed 35 miles inland to Kellie’s parents, unsure, like so many, what we would come back to. 
 
Wyatt and I drove back Saturday to find our acre of 25+ trees smothered in fallen branches, some huge.  But NOT A SHINGLE MISSING or even ruffled!  No broken windows! No flooding! Not one tree down! A giant limb barely missed the new AC unit.  The pool lanai completely in tact.  Not one puncture or tear!  By contrast, less than a mile down the road an airport hanger was destroyed. 
 
Praise Carl Sagan's brute physics and capricious chance?  Hardly.
 
According to my sailor friend Ed, NSB was spared by an act of God through physics. At low tide Saturday morning surge was 3 feet, equal to high tide, poised to wreak havoc pushed by 100 mph winds from the sea.  BUT, the eye of Matthew turned/remained farther off shore than expected. Hmm. Plus, right before high tide, its position switched the wind direction. Hmm.  The northeasterly billows became trailing winds from the west.  Hmm.  This pushed back the surge and massive waves to spare many in our town the level of devastation north of us through the Carolinas.  Hmm.
 
Miracle? Purely physics? Luck?  Hmm.  Certainly a choreography of land, sky and sea...directed by?  allowed by? (Some might feel…unleashed by?)
 
Of course, this begs the question. Was all the damage, destruction and even death elsewhere divine choreography?  God's intended or permissive will?  Permissive, certainly.  All I know is sometimes the Lord calms the wind and the wave and sometimes he lets it rumble, humble and even crumble us. I have experienced all of the above and continue to believe: Life is hard, but God is good.

A majority of “we the people” clearly think the two leading presidential candidates are less than stellar. This speaks volumes about the shape America is in.  But here we are.  Are you torn like I am?
 
It seems this election cycle comes down to a choice between Caricature or Conniver in Chief.
 
To support Caricature in Chief presents extreme dissonance. He actually said he’s “never needed to ask for forgiveness.” I thought only Jesus could make that claim.  Caricature broadcasts an echo chamber of clichés and slogans amplified by bravado, oblivious to the absence of substance. How did bluster without details ever build all those buildings and businesses? Apparently one needs to be very cautious and lawyered up when doing business with him.  Granted, every story has at least two sides and, to be sure, somehow in the business world he gets things done.
 
However, do swagger and imperiousness honor the Oval office and serve the people?  We’ve had a taste of both recently and America is struggling even more - racially, economically, in foreign relations and morally.
 
Does Trump remind anyone else of a genetic mashup of Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy and Looney Tunes’ Yosemite Sam? 
 
On the other side, supporting Conniver in Chief rings with grinding disharmony, requiring a suspension of reason, wisdom and common sense. Madam Conniver is kindred to Community Organizer in Chief who proclaimed "You can keep your doctor and your coverage.” Can anyone who perpetually foxtrots around the truth with such ease and tenacity ever be trusted?  
 
How thick must Conniver’s skin be to stand in front of grieving families and lie to their faces about the death of their loved ones knowing she disregarded their urgent calls for additional security measures for months? And abandoned them in the heat of battle?  All for the sake of avoiding any odor of blame and maintaining the perception of credibility during and election cycle. Irony amplified by actual spilling of life blood becomes infamy.
 
Conniver also has her own echo chamber of clichés and slogans hammered by the Democrats for 50 years including the “righteous” battle cry, “the rich need to pay their fair share.”  IRS fact: top 10% of earners (making over $150K, which is not rich) pay 71% of the taxes while earning only 43% of the income. Nearly 47% of Americans pay very little and often no federal income tax. Fair for crusaders like Conniver translates to “free” as in “free-loaders.”  The same policies of tax and “invest” have have not worked.  So, why think they will this time? Because Conniver will be in charge?
 
(FYI:  In 2015 the Clintons “donated” 96% of their charitable giving, $1 million dollars to their favorite charity, The Clinton Foundation, Vice Chair, Chelsea Clinton.)
 
And then there’s the epic intrigue of her private (spelled: clandestine) server and email.  Subpoenaed then deleted. Her co-conniver and political enforcer Bill meets with chief law enforcer on the threshold of FBI revelations and voila!  A shocking (orchestrated?) failure to bring charges. Meanwhile her minions slouch behind the fifth amendment and gift basket of FBI immunities (free avoid jail cards). Amid all her effort to hide so much Conniver claims to be “the most transparent” figure in public life.  Huh? (Cue the fingernails on chalkboard.)
 
All in all, if anyone can navigate around Hillary’s decades-long record of dishonesty and untrustworthiness and check the box by her name in November, remind me to be very cautious about going into business together or you having my back in a pinch.
 
Clearly both of these humans have drunk from the ample cup of hubris along the way. Haven’t we all had a sip – or two - at least? 
 
Fortunately, our own hubris doesn’t land most of us in the glaring national spotlight, or put any of us beyond the reach of God’s redeeming hand, including connivers and caricatures. The heart of the matter is this: as a nation and as individuals, we need a spiritual reset and renewal…a revival. Transformation of a nation or community begins with transformed hearts and souls.
 
However, if revival delays past November 8, this much seems clear: “we the people” need more than another cagey, career politician or a swashbuckling billionaire.  We know what we get with the first. Politician has become synonymous with perception manager at the least and at worst – a very practiced and polished liar.  The second option might work great in a movie but will a Tony Stark wannabe make our country great, or more greatly distressed?
 
We need a leader. 
 
Herein lies more dissonance: neither candidate appears to be a wholly admirable leader except to those who benefit directly from their momentum and largesse (spelled: cash). But both are highly effective pied pipers with great production staffs who back light him in smoke to classic rock and roll or extoll her in the mellifluous tones of an iconic actor who so winsomely played God. 
 
We mortals simply have to settle for natural sunlight without a Morgan Freeman narration transforming our mundane daily lives into noble stories of overcoming Thoreau’s quiet desperation, while the media masters of the masses live luxuriously on our dime and adulation. Does all this tension and drama leave anyone else hungry for an alternate ending to the story?
 
Imagine this far-fetched scenario:  What if Hillary did what is difficult for all of us, just came clean?  Shot straight.  Imagine her coming clean whatever the consequences. Picture her saying, “Regrettably, I have knowingly misled the American people about a number of things. And even lied to myself about the truth for the sake of appearances. I’m ready to face the consequences whatever they are.” Coming clean might cost her the Oval office – or not. But she could actually finish well, be revered by most instead of reviled by many.  Wouldn’t that give her grandchildren a truly shining legacy? What's that thing Jesus said about gaining the whole world (a limitless fortune and presidential library) but losing your soul?
 
There are connivers aplenty in the Bible and in history.  (Jacob whose name meant “deceiver” for example) Some were humbled and some resisted to the bitter end.
 
As for Donald, what if he stepped out from behind the bluster, the hairspray and makeup, laid down the verbal chainsaw, unplugged from the IV of bravado and raised the bar on substance. Imagine him saying publicly “I have hurt a lot of people with this big mouth and ego and I have asked God for forgiveness and I’m asking you as well.”  And what if he did that privately to individual targets of that hurt?  Imagine if he followed up with financial reparations to anyone he short-sheeted in business. Like Zacheus, repaying 4X the damage inflicted.  Character could eclipse caricature.
 
Now THAT would be newsworthy.  After all, people rally to character, humility, authenticity and honesty. But apparently we the “sheeple”, as someone has called us, also form chanting lines (and violent riots) behind well-funded, pied pipers of slogans, rhetoric and grandiose promises of security, prosperity and free stuff dispensed from the greedy hands and tax-swollen teats of the gargantuan government sow.  (Oooh, sorry for stamping that image in your head.  Maybe I should have back-lit it in smoke and hired Morgan Freeman to deliver the lines?)
 
God and history have dealt decisively with dishonest and arrogant rulers and nations.  They are not beyond his influence.  “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.” (Proverbs 21:1)  But clearly, the Supreme Judge, wise dispenser of justice, mercy and free will gives us a lot of latitude to connive or come clean, choose caricature over character.
 
I plan to vote this November 8 with a less than enthusiastic heart, still secure that God, not any pied piper, masterful production staff, iconic actor or sheeple’s “champion” is ultimately in charge of history, nations, truth, justice and the redemption offered to the conniver and caricature in us all. 
 
Maybe I’ll just console myself by writing in a true-blue, proven leader who combines the wisdom, values and goodness of Andy Griffith with the energy and innovation of Phineas Flynn.  When I find such a candidate, I’ll let you know.