Heard on the news today that almost $14 billion was spent on the 2020 election by both sides. That just seems like a sickeningly large amount of money directed purely at gaining political power. Who is the beneficiary of all that money? The political advertisers are the real winners. Imagine if all that election money had been spent instead on stimulus, infrastructure, poverty, education, or anything else other than an election. What do we really have to show for it all?

I’ve also heard a lot of talk about how one candidate didn’t spend as much money in a certain state, and that’s why they didn’t do as well. That makes me wonder is it that easy to manipulate people just by putting yourself in front of them? More ads on the television or Facebook. To me, that doesn’t speak to a populace of informed and critical thinkers. That sounds like people who are easily swayed one way or the other by their television or someone knocking on their door. Sounds passive and mindless, but maybe I’m wrong.

All that money was spent, and now we have most of the same people in office and a few new ones. How does that really help everyone else in their everyday lives?