At this point in my life I have given up on worrying about who gets elected. My vote is just one vote, and I cast it in the way that I feel pushes the country in the best direction.

To answer your question directly, so far my depression is unrelated to the current political situation.

Typically the democrats scare me the most, mostly because they seem less willing that the republicans to consider the national debt in their decisions, and at the present time they are too much in bed with the concept of political correctness.

That being said, the republicans spend too much energy homophobic policies and the like.

So once again I will vote for whom ever I see as the least evil.

Lol. Homophobic? Funny , but that's a term I hear being passed around more like Racism more than with Christian. But perhaps you don't relate to either.

Oops, I meant to say that the republicans spend too much energy on homophobic policies. By that I mean they spend too much energy on things like preventing same sex marriage, defending companies that refuse to do business with same sex couples, stuff like that.

Not sure what you mean by I don't relate to either. But that is OK.

I'm not depressed for either. I used to get riled up about it. Then I got rid of my tv. Haven't had one in years and no desire. I watch movies through the computer. I find news online. I look for analytical sources, foreign sources, anything besides mainstream media. So I'm not stressed about the election. My political focus is one dimensional- food- so it doesn't matter who is in that position to me. It's the many others that make it difficult.
The economy- I was unexpectedly and unnecessarily fired from a job last year with next to nothing to fall back on because I had been in an at-fault accident 4 months prior. So I realized after heavy soul-searching that if someday I would have to file for bankruptcy, it wouldn't be the end of the world and life would go on. I've been in poverty conditions and homeless before, so know how to navigate it if necessary.

Like ThePepperMan said, I try not to get to worked up over politics.
I always vote and i care who wins but I realize that my vote or opinions dont change anything.

I do get a little pissed over the portrayal by the media of the police as being bad because a few isolated incidents. The shooting of the unarmed kid in Chicago was bad..very bad but that is one case out of the many situations the police deal with every day.

I think one reason Trump [he is not my first choice] has become so popular is that he says what a lot of people think but are afraid to say.
Trump said that when one of these events occurs , its front page news for months.

Last week in Virginia where I live a female police officer was shot and
killed [there were 2 male officers with her who were also injured] on her first day on the job. She was responding to a domestic violence call . The husband who was beating his wife shot her. She was 28 yrs old.

Maybe there was one paragraph about the incident written in newspapers outside of Virginia.

What about equal coverage for the good things police officers do and
those who die to protect us ?

So, we here in Northern Ireland think we have troubles?

America is messed up so much that the people there are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. A lot of it has to do with the way they were brought up and the climate of fear.

If Americans truly had the courage of their convictions, then the Libertarians and Greens would be able to compete with the two problem parties.

I did read about that police woman who was shot in Virginia. It was very tragic, and I hope that the man who shot her is brought to justice quickly.

American politics is indeed, messed up. The two dominant parties seem far more interested in being against the other guys than in finding solutions to problems and moving the country forward.

Smaller parties in America tend to focus on single issues, and as such they really do not attract that wide a following. But as a bit of a contradiction on this, both dominant parties seem to have a lot of single issue people in them; perhaps those people have too much influence in their parties.

So I will vote as always, for the person who will (IMHO) do the most good for the country. Failing that I will vote for the candidate who will (IMHO) do the least bad to the country.

I learned my lesson talking about politics on the Internet. I lost a very good friend because of it. However, my son and I are thinking of moving to Ireland!! Hugs

I have declared myself to be allergic to drama, so I quit paying attention to American politics a long time ago. Not out of apathy, but from the need for mental self-preservation. However you really would have to live in a cave or out in the desert by yourself to not be able to see what's going on these days. I think our current political candidates are truly feeding off of the mass depression and frustration felt throughout the country. I don't think anyone who gets elected is going to make it any better. The only people running this country are not the ones we elect or even need to answer to us in any way shape form. It's the 1%, the rich who can't even fathom the idea of ever being rich enough. They run this country, they piss off all these other countries and everybody hates us for it, like they think we live in a free country where we could stop them if we wanted to. But why blame them for thinking that, there's enough dumbasses here who think the same thing even though the opposite is more obvious than the nose on their faces. Did I say I'm allergic to drama? I think I'm about to break out here lol

i agree with scooby for the most part. but i think there is one candidate who sincerely wants change this country to benefit working people. Bernie!

Trump is a Socialist masquerading as a Conservative. He just acts all John Wayne to coax the electorate. Obama did the same 8 years ago with his slick marketing campaign.

Ach, well! At least we have Kanye West to deal with in 2020! *shudders*

This rhetoric and mud-slinging we're enduring in the form of the Presidential debates doesn't make me more depressed, but it does make me more angry, which is good I suppose. I've been told that anger is depression...with more enthusiasm. Anger keeps us in the fight...for survival. And there's certainly a lot to be angry about these days! Cost of living going up, wages staying the same, or going down, when the work is even there at all, work is tedious, the rich are getting richer, terrorists and drug cartels are moving in to join home-grown wackos who are already legally here even though they're psychologically unfit to own firearms, and America is the laughing stock of the world, thanks to clowns trying to get elected as America's and the free world's leader.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, for now, let's focus on something more positive...whatever that might be...

I'm leaning toward Bernie, BTW, because he is proposing sensible changes to fix problems like healthcare, and has a specific outline. These radical changes probably won't get passed by Congress of course, but it's nice that he's at least talking about these changes, and talking about them intelligently, which will get other, future politicians talking about them as well, so that maybe someday they WILL get voted into law, which is good. I'm registered a Republican voter, from back there in the Reagan years, but I'm going to change that to Independent, so in the 2020 primaries I can vote in for whoever I want, however conscience dictates. Meanwhile, between all the Pubbies yelling at each other in the debates, they didn't give a clear picture of who would best handle the issues America is facing. I do like the one Republican candidate, wish I could remember who it was, who is proposing a flat tax and doing away with the IRS, to simplify the tax code, the process of figuring taxes and doing away with the IRS, to drastically reduce government spending and the federal deficit, something I've been preaching for over a decade. Once again, this idea probably won't get voted into law by Congress, because it would put all of the IRS workers as well as accountants and tax attorneys around the country out of work, but it's nice that a Presidential candidate is at least talking about it anyway, which will get other politicians talking about it, so that maybe someday it WILL get voted into law, at which time maybe there will be other jobs for tax professionals to go into, which is good.

If Trump and Hillary are the only two candidates left standing for the final election at the end of the primaries, I don't like either one of them and will vote for the Independent, Libertarian or Reform candidate in the final election, just to make my "statement" of "neither of the above", Demmie or Pubbie, and vote for the little guy or girl, the underdog.