I can’t tell what I hate most about this election season:

Loyalty oaths to see your president or vice president speak? Fenced-in, remote, technically accurate but cynically labeled free-speech zones? Organized hooligans hired to heckle and disrupt public events? Armed investigators stalking or visiting the homes of antiwar protesters and get-out-the-vote volunteers?

Paid authors and documentary filmmakers creating deceptive press releases, magazine articles, books, attack ads and propaganda films? Revolving back-door deals and our government halls teeming with a blur of lawyer-lobbyist-civil-servant traffic?

Orwellian “market-speak” packaging purposely employed to make dishonest regulations (or deregulation) and laws salable; if not actually palatable or healthy or consumer-friendly once implemented?

No-receipt electronic voting machines? Improperly purged voter rolls? It’s time for a clean sweep at the top and a fresh start.

Carl Hartung

Dover-Foxcroft