Where have all the flowers gone?

Remember that song by Pete Seeger, which was recorded by The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, and many others?  The chorus goes:  when will they/we ever learn?

Which reminds of me St Paul:  why do I do what I know I don't want to do?

Which reminds me of life.  Why do we do what we don't want/mean to do?  Why do we get sidetracked so easily?  Why do we forge ahead, unthinking, with the crowd?

All these come to mind in this run-up to the election next Tuesday.  The ads are getting louder and more obnoxious and I don't bother to answer the phone any more because I know it's just a robo-call asking for my vote.  The thing that aggravates me the most is that I get no sense that those running for office this time care about or think that what they are doing is about doing what's best for the people.  Someone who holds public office is supposed to be a servant of the people.  It's public servant, not party servant.  All I seem to be hearing about is party politics and a desire to hold power.  

I heard an story on NPR yesterday morning from Bill Adair of PolitiFact.com who is a fact checker for political advertisements in this election season.  Adair found that most of them are "barely true" and a few even elicited the rating "pants on fire."  Such as the threat that a candidate wanted to force seniors out of Medicare and into being covered by the government's health plan.  Ummm - Medicare is the government health plan for seniors.  

Do any of these candidates want to do what is right for the country?  I understand that Americans are frustrated about the economy and unemployment but where are the plans to address anything other than getting elected or throwing out the incumbents?

When will we ever learn?