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Chester County Press

Uncle Irvin: Election 2016 debased America

11/08/2016 12:26PM ● By Richard Gaw

(The word “debased” was borrowed from a recent issue of an English magazine called the Economist)

Uncle Irvin has been a presidential voter since the 1960 election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
The recent 2016 election is, by a wide margin, the worst example of free and open elections since I began voting. Regardless of who won (this column was written before the Nov. 8 election), the United States of America lost prestige, both domestically and in the rest of the world. The presidential candidates were the worst two -- based on character and integrity -- that I have personally witnessed.
The billions spent, from the top of the tickets to the bottom, was a complete waste that should have been used for infrastructure repair, not insults and self-aggrandizement.
How can the Republican Party of Chester County justify the spending for more than 20 mailings to elect an inexperienced “kid” to be State Representative from the 158th District? How dare politicians invade the sanctity of every American's right to privacy by robocalling 12 hours of every day for more than two weeks?
This is sheer lunacy, and it portrays the U.S. as a joke to the rest of the world. I am ashamed of the 2016 election and its characterization of my homeland.

(Uncle Irvin's column is his opinion only, and is not a news story.)