Why I am so afraid

I am sad and scared for our country.  Here's why, in no particular order:
 

1. One of our major political parties is intent on making our President fail.  Constituents be damned.  And then the President is criticized for not "reaching across the aisle" when he has bent over backward to do so, to the point where his supporters have become angry at him.
2. The NDAA allows for indefinite detention of American citizens for little or no reason.
3. Lies go unchallenged.  And when challenged, the campaign of one major party candidate says they won't be dictated to by fact-checkers.  And it goes on to tell lie after lie, unchallenged.  In debate, this is known as the Gish Gallop - telling so many lies so brazenly that your opponent can't figure out where to start debunking and you get away with many of the lies.
4. Christians zero in on one or two issues that Jesus never mentioned and ignore issues that he talked about over and over.
5. There are organizations who vow to intimidate voters.
6. Our elections depend upon privately-owned electronic voting machines that provide no paper trail and result in votes that cannot be recounted.
7. Words like "socialist," "communist," "fascist," "unions," and "deficit" are being thrown around by people who don't understand what they mean.
8. Our public schools are being turned into for-profit enterprises.  Good education can't be provided by for-profit corporations.
9. Some people are more concerned with the national debt than they are with their neighbors in oppressive debt.
10. Our corporations put greed, yes greed, above their employees.  Highly profitable companies get rid of employees who have been with them for decades in favor of Chinese employees whom they can pay $0.99 per hour.  Did you notice, these companies are highly profitable already.  I have no problem with profit, it's a good thing and I know how important it is to make a profit in our own small business.  It's greed I have a problem with. 
11. Our foreign policy is being reduced to made-up scandals about dissing Netanyahu (when the Israeli defense chief has praised the President) and about a consulate attack (when the CIA denies right-wing charges and nobody really knows what went on behind the scenes).
12. One of our major political parties is intent on suppressing voting.  They say, out loud, that their efforts are intended to make their party's candidates win.
13. The electoral college.  Nuff said.
14. Important constituencies have suffered unthinkable losses and may be too exhausted to get to a polling place.  And, because of communication problems, they may not even know where to vote.
15. One of our major party candidates has never lived in the real world outside of his privileged bubble, and calls himself "a businessman" even though he has never run a real business that produced real products and/or services.  He has no idea what it is to live on the edge.
16. We have some great third party candidates, but our political system makes it fruitless to vote for them.
17. Our infrastructure is crumbling, but some politicians will not pass legislation that will provide funds for their repair because their is no revenue to cover it.  But they won't take steps to increase revenue because they have sworn a blood oath to a rich pundit not to raise taxes.
18. Social Security is being looked at as an investment program.  It was never intended to be an investment program; it is a social safety net.  It should never be privatized.  One simple tweak would ensure its survival, but Wall Street can't wait to get their paws on it.
19. Medicare is being looked at as a gift to insurance companies.  One party insists on ending it as a federal program and handing out vouchers for insurance.  Try getting health insurance from a for-profit company when you're 83.  Medicare is efficient as it is, just paying providers and not trying to make profits for shareholders.
20. One party wants to privatize everything.  But there are some things that should never be privatized, e.g., education, disaster relief, and fixing infrastructure.
21. The media sickens us with their constant polling and horse-race predictions just to keep interest up and sell more advertising.

 
Those are the issues I find troubling at this time.  I'll update as I think of more.  And most of them will continue regardless of who gets elected. 
 
I welcome your comments.
 
Pam