Has the notion of popularly elected national leadership become a fiction in America? Is the current election-year exercise really a sham? Should one party’s ill-considered presidential running mate decision of four years ago now portend shadow government for the next four? A cleverly orchestrated, desperation presidential coup by the incumbent political apparatus has positioned a poorly qualified understudy candidate to be the symbolic figurehead for a world-class nation. The next White House occupant could front for an unseen cohort of party loyalists and major donors supported by an embedded “Deep State” of essentially lifetime appointees. That massive, self-reinforcing bureaucracy is fully equipped with historical data and modern-day technology to track and torment the entire constituent population. The elected president becomes a puppetized mouthpiece for unidentified backroom socioeconomic and geopolitical architects. What you don’t see is what you should be wary of getting. The alternative is clear and invites no suspicion or speculation. The public experience of 2017-21 merits repetition to the extent possible. Though the subsequent administration has been a severe setback, it’s not yet too late for remedial initiatives to recover lost domestic prosperity and international prestige. Phil Osifer