As we move closer to Election Day 2016 (as with every election in the last 50+ years) the polling is getting closer between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton. This isn’t surprising especially in light of the fact that Americans tend to be limited in not only where they get not only their information, but their opinions, namely the mainstream media that includes FOX and MSNBC.

In this country, both candidates have high negative numbers. This can be easily explained. For over 25 years politicians with the help of the mainstream media, we have told what crooks and dishonest people the Clintons are. Mind you, nothing of any real substance has ever been proven against Hillary Clinton. Anything that has come close to being unsavory is also SOP (Standard Operational Procedure) for any successful politician. In short, there has and is a double standard that Clinton is held to and people on both the left and the right are too willing to hold her to it. So when media tells people an unsubstantiated scandal against Hillary, the people are predisposed to find her guilty until proven innocent. Often, she’s still guilty even after being proven innocent.

As for Donald J. Trump, his unfavorable ratings are high because of things he has actually done, said and continues to say. This is a man with a long history of discrimination against minorities. Starting with housing discrimination for which both he and his father were found guilty and fined, to calling for the execution of 5 Black teenagers for a crime they were proven not to have committed and refusing to own up to his mistake and apologize to them. Of course most recently he stated, without any factual basis, that immigrants across the southern border are mostly (“some I assume are good people”) rapists, robbers and murderers. The statistics are clear, they’re not. In fact first generation immigrants (legal or otherwise) are far more law abiding than native born Americans. That is demonstrably true and backed up by data spanning generations. Trump ignores it and continues to misrepresent the truth about immigration in order to secure the whole hearted support of those predisposed to believe these lies because they are fearful, angry and most importantly, racist. He’s using racist issues to get enthusiastic support and most of the nation sees it.

Hillary gets unfavorable ratings because she’s been involved in politics her entire adult life. People don’t look past that nor understand that this also means she’s experienced, tested and ready and able to take on the issues only an experienced politician with an even temperament can handle. People only see a “career politician” without understanding what that exactly means. Trump gets unfavorable ratings for his demonstrated lack of understanding of foreign affairs, military affairs, being thin skinned and ill-tempered. Trump is disliked for exactly who he is and Hillary is disliked for what she is perceived to be.

The media plays both sides of this in measured ways to get this race to be closer as we near the end. They give free coverage to every Trump event, but no analysis of what he just said and how factually wrong he is or the harm he creates. He’s received far more coverage than Clinton. At the same time, the media rarely covers Hillary herself, but gives plenty of coverage to those who have a dim view of her while providing little to no analysis as to why they are wrong. So instead of either candidate being given a balanced and equal assessment of their qualities or lack thereof, both are treated differently so the public sees them equally bad so there will be a horse race in November. It’s dishonest but makes for great ratings.

This was to be expected. It happened recently in 2012 when because of skewed media coverage of the facts and candidates, both Obama and Romney polled closer as Election Day drew closer. Obama did beat Romney in an electoral landslide. It happened in 2008 between Obama and McCain with the same results. Now more importantly, this also happened in 2000 between Bush and Gore. Media kept the race close by manipulating the facts between the two candidates to make them equally supported and despised coming up to Election Day. In doing so, despite have a higher popular vote total, Gore lost to Bush because of the Electoral College results (the Supreme Court helped also).

The polling will get closer and we cannot expect mainstream media to suddenly start doing their jobs and report on the candidates for what and who they are instead of how they want them perceived so media can get higher ratings.

As they get closer in the polls the risk of a Trump presidency increases. Experts from all fields say that a Trump presidency will tank ours and the world’s economy, would destabilize national security and our standing in the world, would harm our nation domestically even worse than what the Bush administration did. These people know from what they speak of and have the data to back it up.

Now if you hate Clinton for the unsubstantiated reasons floating around out there consider this, on her worst day, is she any worse than what Donald Trump? Consider what says he stands for, what says he will do while not presenting an iota of supporting facts or a plausible plan to do anything? If you can then you’re a smarter person than anybody else because not Trump or his supporters have been able to point out how he would do anything. In reality, what he wants to do would most likely lead to problems this nation has never experienced.

On another note, the reality of the situation is neither Johnson nor Stein have any chance of winning. They’re only running now to get that  10% of the vote in order to get matching funds from the Federal Government. They both know they can’t win and even if they could, both are totally unqualified or aware of what it takes to run a country and work with a Congress made up of two parties that they have nothing in common with.

You have to face reality whether you like it or not, a vote for Stein or Johnson is a wasted “protest vote” that serves no purpose other than to sway the election even closer to Trump.

The stakes are too high not to get out the true information regarding both main party candidates and to get out the vote to ensure the only qualified, experienced, intelligent and even tempered candidate wins. That is Hillary Clinton and for the sake of our economy, our social safety net, our standing in the world, our ability to continue to improve and increase our ability and obligation to assist the least among us, we all must make sure she wins soundly, despite what the polling says.