Has there ever been a time in America's storied history when government "of the people, by the people and for the people" failed so miserably to promote "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" among that vast constituency? Our supposedly democratic, capitalistic society is being strangled by unprecedented and excessive inflation, indebtedness, regulation, bureaucracy, partisanship, immigration, crime, prejudice, poverty, deviance, addiction, secularism and so on - causing a startling percentage of the population to opine that the nation is headed in the wrong direction. Congressional dysfunctionality has effectively ceded governance to White House executive orders, bordering on dictatorship reliant on a bloated "deep state" of unelected administrators with no accountability to the people. This situation places us in an uncomfortable defensive posture against internal stresses of ideological division and signals vulnerability to opportunistic foreign regimes seeking greater international influence. The solution to this pervasive impression of embedded weakness calls for strong, committed leadership to deal with ambitious and unprincipled overseas tyrants while restoring a domestic society based on Constitutional adherence and humanistic principles common to most religious faiths. Many sources constantly report their versions of news and opinion; you decide in November. Phil Osifer