Do legitimately registered American voters prefer governance by principle or rule by expediency? The current campaign experience is amusing, as the embedded side remains conversationally reclusive while trial-ballooning elements of the challengers’ clearly stated policy intentions. This enigma casts our democratic republic in a new light. What you’re likely to get from perpetuation of what’s left of the incumbent Washington regime depends on when you see and hear about it.Can such orchestrated obfuscation prevail through Election Day? Are we witnessing the decline of a system of government that has withstood 248 years of stress-testing? Will the unprecedented 2024 melee between a duly qualified, well-known candidate with demonstrated past executive experience be overlooked in favor of a programmed novice obviously taking direction from unseen handlers and incapable of articulating their speculative agenda without a script?This show must have the appeal of comedy hour on Chinese, Russian and Iranian television. The struggle may come down to a question of which side implodes as the other explodes in an extended charade with debatable outcome but a hopefully finite deadline. Phil Osifer