November 5 election day is just days away. Groups are encouraging their members to vote with their group. Keep in mind that we are all different. There are few groups which have all of the same interests as their individual members. Both of my books, Grandpa Gary’s Teen Playbook and Grandpa Gary’s Deep Dive stress the importance of self-analysis, critical review of the issues, and following one’s own conscience as a key to success.

I do wish to remind all citizens that there will be winners and losers based on election results. Remember that losing presents an opportunity to assess what went wrong and identify positive action to achieve your desired results. We are created equal and we can and will eliminate divisiveness through acknowledging and respecting others and cooperating to achieve common goals.

I am not Republican or Democrat and I firmly believe our government should not be Republican or Democrat. I have already said that we need to hold ourselves accountable. I see some critical areas that we can work together on for improvement of all citizens of this great country. I believe our representatives, collectively and over many years, have subtly enhanced themselves at our expense. Let me express my views: campaign finance reform has led to increasing costs rather than decreasing cost enhancing their ability to stay in power, opposition to term limits (many profit and non-profits have age limits or other rules to permit peaceful changes in leaders), income tax law and enforcement have been used selectively for the controlling political party’s advantage. A deep analysis of related issues as well as their personal growing net worth will show that there are common interests where representatives of both parties have used their combined “common sense” to take away our “common$CENTS” via income taxes. I believe it is time for term limits and a discussion to identify an alternate method to for funding government while reducing the size.

Again, this is not an issue which began yesterday. Our government has been increasing its control over us for many years. We have been electing the wrong people for many years. Our Gross Domestic Product and National Debt respectively were 16,880,700 and 16,738,000 in 2013. Respective numbers for last year, 2023, are GDP at 27,356,400 and National Debt at 34,001,000. We as individuals cannot do this. Why do we let leaders play like this with our “common$CENTS.”

It is time for our prospective leaders to be honest with us and for us to hold them accountable.