Are we up to it?

any sensitive information was ever compromised or hacked.

Hillary Clinton was completely open and cooperative throughout the FBI investigation. Nevertheless, her unintended errors have generated cries of “Crooked Hillary!” and “Lock Her Up!” from Donald Trump in his best schoolyard bully performance. Anyone who can’t see through Donald needs a refresher course in common sense.

Trump has the audacity to make these accusations after refusing to make public his tax records as every other presidential candidate has done for four decades. And there’s no reason the ongoing audit should prevent him for doing that. Is he concealing something? Has he paid no taxes or lied about his wealth and charitable contributions? How about heavy investor losses in his four bankruptcies while he came out relatively unscathed financially? Or the now – defunct Trump University rip off that the New York Attorney General called “straight up fraud.” I could go on.

Crooked Hillary? This guy is a certified crook and liar who has somehow convinced a certain impressionable element of the American electorate that he could be trusted to run our country. I believed that up until convention time the Republican Party would surely find some way to deny Trump the nomination. But I was wrong, dead wrong. But I have faith the American people will send Trump packing on Nov. 8. I hope I’m not wrong again. The fact that Trump even commands more than 20 percent of the vote, approximately the amount first identified as the “lunatic Fringe” by Teddy Roosevelt, disturbs me. Something that bothers me even more is the fact that we are 31st out of An historical perspective 34 among world democracies in voter turnout. Only 65 percent of Americans eligible to vote are even registered. This is more than just embarrassing, it’s plumb scary.

The long – term changes we must make will not come from our two major parties. Those bozos in Washington, irrespective of party, are still 40 percent lawyers and bought and paid for by Big Pharma, the insurance industry and Wall Street. And changes won’t originate from politicians on an ego trip like Bernie Sanders either. They must come from a third party initiative capable of electing a president, vice president and a congress. And they must begin with a grass–roots level, precinct-byprecinct, county-by-county movement by ordinary citizens. Now is the time to get started, not next year. Are we up to it?

George B. Reed Jr., who lives in Rossville, can be reached by email at reed1600@bellsouth.net.