I have to admit I was a little disappointed with the first debate. I have to stop and ask myself, what was I hoping for? Trump is sort of like a Winston Churchill: rough, gruff, sort of redneck guy, authoritative, determined and even if unlikable to many, gets the job done. Those whose ire gets up at Trump might feel like the angry Lady Astor with Winston Churchill when she said to him: “Winston, if you were my husband, I’d put poison in your coffee.” Churchill snapped, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.“

Hillary on the other hand is polished, experienced, and rather resolute like a Cruella de Vil with a fetish for “furs”: Hillary has an insatiable desire to be the top dog on the political heap. She will do whatever it takes to buy the vote like Cruella who will stop at nothing to get the animals she wants. Hillary is not particularly concerned about others except for how they can serve her purposes.

What is behind our two candidates though? It is we the people who have chosen them. Republicans support our republic: founded by our forefathers to topple big government and strangling taxes and to create a government by the people and for the people: limiting government power and promoting liberty and justice for all as defined by God. The founders also had a basic worldview that human nature needed God in order to avoid the pitfall of becoming greedy and power hungry.

Now for almost a century, people have been drifting in the direction of humanism, socialism and even communism. These ideologies believe the human being is supreme, basically good, and not needing God, thank you: give us freedom and support to do whatever we want. Those who rise to the top are to exercise their supreme wisdom and power to take care of the lowly masses under them while being free to use corruption and psychological coercion to amass greater wealth and power and position for themselves. We have a president who believes strongly in socialism and resents our nation for its success. He wants to “take from the rich and give to the poor.” Democrats promote changing our Constitution and government to conform to this “new order.”

What are you hoping for? More government regulations so the government will take better care of us? Higher taxes to take money from the rich so the government can spend more, raise their salaries more, and have bigger parties? Russia didn’t bother with taxes; the people just had a revolution over a century ago to steal rich people’s money so that the wealth could be evenly distributed. Funny how with communism in Russia, somehow the money never got to the people or to build better roads or homes or improve the quality of life for the average person but rather ended up building an evil regime that eventually was doomed to fail.

Or how about greater freedom for terrorists and drug lords to come to our country? Better yet, shouldn’t our government trust nations that propagate terrorism and help them along — make them our allies? Would you like our government to continue to spend and print money rather than risk the consequences of balancing a budget that may save our country from bankruptcy? What about the government saving the world by shutting down our oil and coal production to reverse global warming? How is all that working for us?

I suppose I was hoping there would be greater clarity and truth emerge from the debate. I think there is a whole lot of distortion and confusion causing many to drift from the basics. Still, in spite of who emerges as our next leader or even if our republic falls to socialism or Islam, one thing I believe unequivocally: All men, women and children need to come to the knowledge and truth of God: to love God with our heart, soul, might, and mind and to love others as ourselves.

If we don’t start there, we will end up in the same place eventually whether Republican or Democrat.

Olson is a resident of Kalispell.