Dear Bernard,

Have you voted yet? Hopefully, by this time next week we will know who the president-elect will be and who will govern our country for the next four years.

No matter who wins, I feel we will have another four years of complaining, moaning, and whining by half of the country. This part of complaining about the government is in our country's DNA. If we wanted decorum and manners, we would have stayed under British rule.

Around 250 years ago, a group of men who didn't like or trust each other got together to form a government with checks and balances. Remember, Burr shot Hamilton. (On July 11, 1804, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr met on the dueling grounds at Weehawken, New Jersey, to fight the final skirmish of a long-lived political and personal battle. When the duel was over, Hamilton would be mortally wounded, and Burr would be wanted for murder.) That was truly mean politics.

If we really look objectively you can see that our government swings like a pendulum. Sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left, but rarely spending much time in the middle. If your candidate(s) win or lose, the important thing to remember is that we are in this together.

So, before all of the political ads are replaced with ads for Christmas, let me leave you with these pearls of wisdom:

• In 1930, Babe Ruth became the first athlete to rake in a higher salary than the president of the United States ($80,000 vs $75,000). Ruth was famously asked if he felt he should make more money than the president, to which he replied, “Why not? I had a better year than he did.”

• “Being president is like running a cemetery: You’ve got a lot of people under you, and nobody’s listening.” -Bill Clinton 

• “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.”-Harry S. Truman

• Between 1960 and 1977, the secret code authorizing U.S. presidents to launch nuclear missiles was 00000000.-The Center for Defense Information

• “When they call the roll in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer ‘present’ or ‘not guilty.’”-President Theodore Roosevelt

• “I’ve arranged with my executor to be buried in Chicago because when I die, I want to still remain active politically.”-Earl Long, three-time Governor of Louisiana

• “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”-Confucius

• "The more you observe politics, the more you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other." -Will Rogers

As always, thanks for reading.

Bernie & Chad