You of course know how this November’s election is being couched by the zeitgeist….
“The most important election of our lifetime.”
You know this? Because it’s extruded by nigh everyone in the zeitgeist. And because it’s how every election has been couched - since at least 1805. Evergreen verbiage vomited up to help rile up the people who think elections actually matter.
I was provided some intellectual relief by the number of Web search results I received pointing out the banality of that sentence. I will admit: More people are in on the joke than I had thought.
I am not here to add to that tally. I am instead going to accurately identify 2026’s festivities:
The stupidest, most unserious election of our lifetimes.
2026 is stupider than 2024. Which is stupider than 2022. Which…. Presidential or off-year? Doesn’t matter to how much stupider each successive election gets.
Elections are always conducted on a slate of often fraudulent and irrelevant “problems.” So as to divert our attention entirely away from our actual problems.
So each successive election gets stupider. Because our perpetually neglected problems - grow larger and worse. Our yet again neglecting them this election - renders this one the stupidest. Until we run out of elections.
Our actual problems are quite easy to identify. Which is why more and more hundreds of billions of dollars are spent every election - in an attempt to divert our attention.
In this “off-year” election? Election spending is projected to be record-breaking in its voluminousness. Yet you could consume every second of campaign nonsense produced by these record dollars? And hear just about nothing about any of the very real problems we face.
Thankfully, there is one very real problem getting the election attention it deserves. Accidentally and backwards - but attention nevertheless.
What I’ll call Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Plus: AI, data centers, surveillance cameras, etc - have received nigh zero scrutiny from our elected officials. But is getting it in droves from the voting public.
This is one of those very few, very fun instances where the people are so overwhelming - they force the elected officials to pretend to care. It’s been enjoyable to observe.
But here are several very real problems - about which Election 2026 has very little to say….
President Donald Trump’s Iran war has strip mined the global energy system. Which has inevitably strip mined the global economy. It will take many years to get back to pre-war normalcy. That’s a real and serious problem.
Then there’s the federal government’s $40+ trillion debt. And the $1+ trillion in interest we are now paying upon it. Whilst fewer and fewer buyers are interested in buying the bonds which fund the debt. That’s another real and serious problem.
These problems alone should be consuming 80+% of Election 2026. Yet NO ONE is campaigning on them. Or even about them. You only get occasional platitudinous lies.
Trump simultaneously claims prices will immediately drop after the war ends (they won’t) - and that the high prices are the fault of the Biden Administration. Ummm…If Biden were to blame - what difference would the war’s end make?
And you get lies about “reducing the deficit.” Except the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 deficit was $2+ trillion. And FY 2027’s deficit is projected to be $2.2 trillion. By my math? The latter is higher than the former.
What stupid, unserious things are consuming Election 2026? Let’s trip through some “matters of import” being spewed at us, shall we?
We are told we face an imminent Communist threat.
Are they referencing China - to whom we’ve outsourced our economy and national security? Of course not. To the contrary: In DC business as usual, President Donald Trump is even looking to sell China weapons.
The Communist “threat” being discussed - is a couple dozen public officials strewn amongst a population of 340 million people.
We are told we face an imminent Islamist threat. They’re talking about a couple dozen Muslim public officials strewn amongst a population of 340 million people.
(At least one Election 2026 twofer: New York City mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani.)
And, as always, we are spending an inordinate amount of time screeching about Israel and Israel’s neighbors.
Of course I am not a fan of either Communism or radical Islamism. And I acknowledge that both have done damage in some parts of the country. But do I really think the US is threatened with imminent Communist or Islamist takeover - regardless of Election 2026’s outcome? I do not.
I was America First back when it was called isolationism. And now that we’ve watched Trump build America First - and then destroy it? I’m back to again being an isolationist, I guess.
And there’s some irony for you. Trump actually succeeded in injecting some reality and good policy into a few elections. Only to now revert to the stupid and unserious norm.
For me, nothing’s changed. I still don’t want to spend our money overseas. Not for ~800 US military bases. And not for foreign countries or entities - Israel included.
Spending money overseas - is choosing sides. And unless and until someone chooses sides against US? We absolutely should not be choosing sides amongst them.
What Israel, its neighbors and 185 or so other countries do - is almost always none of our business.
And choosing sides amongst them - is a good way to get a lot of them to choose sides against US. See: The entire history of the US’s meddling overseas.
It would be great if these real issues and real ideas were a key component of US Election 2026.
But as US history demonstrates - then it wouldn’t be US Election 2026.