I mailed my official election ballot yesterday. Well, actually, it was Charlotte who put it in the mailbox. This will be the 11th U.S. presidential election since I became eligible to vote, and by a wide margin, the most important one yet! I had nothing to do with being born in the US and don’t feel particularly proud to be an American citizen.

That said, I thoroughly enjoy visiting and experiencing the country’s incredible variety (geography and culture) and I do feel a sense of pride and civic duty when participating in the democratic process of both of my “homelands”.

By voting for Kamala Harris I’m saying it’s about time we elect a smart, wise, and competent woman to the presidency – how overdue is that? Equally important, though, is casting a vote for Harris/Walz to keep the bumbling, incoherent, and utterly unqualified competition from entering the White House. Because we’ve seen enough of that already…haven’t we?

Now, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about why it is that a lot of folks don’t agree with me and I’ve come to a few homegrown conclusions.

If you haven’t seen enough crap from Trump/Vance to dismay you from voting for them next month, you are either only focused on stuff the duo says that sounds advantageous to you on a personal or business level, or, you are no longer capable of discerning right from wrong, what’s real/truthful and what’s fake/disingenuous.

Or, worse yet, you don’t give a hoot if you’re being sold snake oil…just as long as it’s your snake oil. Which to me is tribalism – i.e. another religion.

About 75 million Americans voted for Trump/Pence in 2020. I know that’s a lot of people to disrespect and disregard. But hear me out.

Consider this.

On average, Americans spend more than 10 hours per day glaring at their screens gaming, scrolling, chatting, following influencers, and watching all kinds of ephemeral entertainment…

About 60% of Americans don’t get enough quality sleep leading to long-term health issues including heart disease.

Only 23% of adults meet the CDC’s recommended guidelines for physical activity.

Americans consume 77 grams of added sugar per day more than double the recommended amount and nearly 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. has high blood pressure often linked to sugary (UPF) foods and sugary beverages.

Just about 74% of American adults are considered either overweight or obese and among children and teens, about 1 in 5 (20%) are classified as obese. Please read that sentence again, just to make sure it sinks in.

Where am I going with all this, you ask?

To me, it’s perfectly understandable that of those who have the privilege of voting in the US, many have a serious problem when it comes to making really important decisions about their own lives and their health. Let alone being focused and mindful enough to make an informed decision about which candidate to elect for president and veep.

Clearly, there is a “poor judgment pandemic” in the US of A. and it’s clearly affecting the country’s democracy.

No wonder the populists are so popular.

The above illustration was created through a series of iterative prompts over at ChatGPT where bleeding-heart liberals like me spend way too much time nowadays.