It’s hard to go anywhere these days without running into doom and gloom.

Even those who are normally upbeat about life talk about bad things and predict times will get worse.

A minister writes on Facebook that he misses a time when God was feared.

I was taught to respect God, not fear him (or her).

An increasing number of folks say they might not vote in the upcoming Presidential election in November because they can’t decide which candidate they hate the least.

“I find myself voting most of the time against a candidate, not for one,” says one, “but I cannot stand Donald Trump and I despise Hillary Clinton.”

Another says she can’t decide which candidate for President scares her the most.

Some 8,000 people showed up at the Berglund Center in Roanoke Saturday to see and hear Trump promise to fix everything he claims is wrong about America.  He doesn’t say how but asked those who attended the rally to simply trust him.

A month ago, Democrat Clinton appeared in cruise mode to easily win the race.  As the old saying goes, that was then and this is now.  The latest Washington Post poll shows Clinton and Trump virtually tied after several incredible stumbles by her.

The Richmond Times Dispatch, owned by billionaire Warren Buffett, who also owns The Roanoke Times, The Floyd Press and many other newspapers in Virginia and around the country decided neither Clinton nor Trump have displayed Presidential persona, so the paper endorsed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico.

Then an interviewer asked Johnson about Aleppo, a key city in the center of the strife in Syria and his response?  “What is Aleppo?”

Asked a Floyd Democrat this week: “Can Trump win?”

Yes, he can, because most of us said a month ago that the race was Clinton’s to lose and she’s doing as much as she can to do so.

Should Trump win?

Writes The Los Angeles Times about Trump in its editorial endorsing Clinton:

He has never held elected office and has shown himself temperamentally unfit to do so. He has run a divisive, belligerent, dishonest campaign, repeatedly aligning himself with racists, strongmen and thugs while maligning or dismissing large segments of the American public. Electing Trump could be catastrophic for the nation.

Yes, Trump aligns himself with racists, strongmen and thugs but there may be enough of them out there to elect him.

The election of Barack Obama eight years ago re-energized  America’s racism and bigotry.  White Supremacy crawled out of under rocks and out of sewers to proclaim loudly that Trump is their man and their time is now.

It could be.  The election in 2008 of America’s first African-American president, hailed as a big step forward eight years ago, is now the drumbeat of defeat accompanied by the bugle of taps.

America is too overrun with racists, bigots, the homophobic and the haters.  As Trump’s base, they define an America of hate and intolerance.

In little more than a month, voters will decide the future of America.

Or they could destroy it.