Do you have election angst?  I do.  As I watch the two most hated candidates in U.S. Presidential history duke it out, and as I read news stories coming out hourly about the transgressions both of them have may or may not have committed, I’m flooded with anger, doubt, resentment, panic, anxiety, shock and dread.  I’m questioning my own self-worth in the face of female objectification.  I’m looking at my leaders with unwelcome doubt in my eyes. I’m watching the skies for imminent nuclear attacks.

In short, I’ve been gobbling up the fear that both parties have been dishing out, and the poison is killing me.

A few months ago, I thought the country was doing pretty darn well.  When I am out and about, doing my business, I see a lot of business taking place.  Instead of ghost towns and boarded up businesses, the likes of which I saw everywhere 10 years ago, I now see full parking lots and thriving commerce.  I’ve read about the steps we’re taking as a nation to protect our children, our health, our environment and our communities, and I’ve felt optimistic.  I know that we have big battles to fight and a long way to go, but I’ve felt like our country and the people in it are on the right path.

Now, amid the biggest mud-slinging fest in modern political times, I’ve lost my sense of optimism and let basic fear take over.

There’s a sense in our country right now that our destruction is imminent and is dependent solely on one thing:  the person who will be sworn in as Commander-in-Chief next January.  I’m being told that I HAVE to vote for ________ or our beloved country, as we know it, will cease to exist.

The presidential race is important, no doubt.  But is our entire future dependent on whether one flawed human vs. a different flawed human takes office?

This question has made me consider the basic premise of the United States of America, to the heart of the formation of this great nation – our Constitution.  I regained my faith in this great nation and I learned to calm my fears by reading just the first three words in that great document.  The first three words, and the most important three words in the entire work.

We, the People.

Our founders were wiser than we sometimes give them credit for.  They didn’t write a document placing their faith in any individual person.  They believed in the power of the people together, not the strength of an individual.  They had the foresight to understand that any one individual school of thought would be unable to stand the test of time, because any one individual thought/idea/theory/person is weak.  Any one, individual item of anything is ineffectual.  Only by banding together could the United States of America truly flourish.

We, the People.

We have been buying into this idea that the current presidential race is life-altering, but the only way that would be true is if the President had ultimate power over the future of our nation.  The candidates are telling us that the only way forward is by following the directives that they are going to set forth.  She and he are telling us that she, or he, and ONLY she or he, can solve our problems.  In doing so, they are both lying to us and turning us into helpless victims.  They are underestimating us.

We, the People.

When our leaders fail us (which seems to be the case at the moment), we have no need to truly worry.  A leader is just one among us.  We are better than one.  We are millions.  We can unite.  We can get to work solving our nation’s problems one brick at a time, the way we’ve always done it.   The way our founding fathers predicted that we would.

Just like Dorothy trying to find her way home and discovering that she had the power within her all along, we need to look down and find our own ruby slippers.  Our magic can be found in those three little words at the preamble of our Constitution.

We, the People.

We can stop the fear mongering.  We, the People, are going to be just fine.