My CONCLUSIONS about America's 56 campaigns/elections.

After five months of researching America's 56 campaigns/elections I've reached some conclusions - I'll share these with you.

A number of words/phrases are ingrained in my mind in regard to the 56 political campaigns in our nation. Here they are:

POWER - political parties will do just about anything to achieve and maintain power - whether legal, illegal, unethical, or whatever.

MONEY and GREED - these two go hand-in-hand with power. The big banks and the millionaires and billionaires want their pockets to continue to be lined.

LITTLE PEOPLE DON'T COUNT - when it came to the little working guy wanting to unionize and have better working conditions and make more money the big money people could care less - that's why they supported the more conservative candidates for president. This was especially true during the "The Gilded Age." I put this Gilded Age from about 1870 to 1932.

LIES, HALF-TRUTHS, DECEPTION - these have been standard procedure for our campaigns.

NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING WORKS - every campaign has had negative campaigning but the two that come to mind are the campaigns of 1928 (Herbert Hoover versus that Catholic guy named Al Smith) and 1988 (George H.W. Bush versus Michael Dukakis). These two were vicious and full of lies and deception. It made me sick to read about these two.

THERE IS NO SHAME - no matter how negative the campaigns there has been no shame shown by the winners or their campaign managers or workers. The campaign of 1876 was the most shameful election in American history. The election was stolen by the Republicans from the Democrats and a deal was worked out that set back the civil, social, economic, and political rights of African-Americans by 90-100 years.

PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE WHAT THEY WANT YO BELIEVE - regardless of what the truth is - see the election of 1840 as an example.

THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS - don't seem to be followed very closely in our campaigns even though every candidate in all 56 campaigns and their campaign managers have all professed to be strong believers in the teachings of Jesus.

THINGS WON'T CHANGE - the only two elections not to be negative were in 1789 and 1820 - George Washington and James Monroe ran unopposed.

DIRTY AND ROTTEN AND NASTY CAMPAIGNS - are as American as apple pie, ice cream, and Chevrolet.