If you haven’t heard, we are electing a President on this side of the big water in November. I am a little embarrassed at the sideshow this election has been almost from day one. 
 
It amazes and saddens me that both sides have picked candidates that polling shows nearly no-one thinks is honest. 

See also: Read more from our Arable Farmer Focus writers

Many of the candidates who were discarded rated much higher in that category, in many cases on the Republican side those “honest” candidates got nearly no delegates. 

What does this say about our society? It’s very sad that we don’t want honest leaders.
 
I have always been interested in politics and have held various roles since I was president of my freshman class in high school. 

I’ve run in seven local elections and never lost, serving in local office for the last 23 years, although I should mention in four of those I was unopposed. That helps your odds of winning. I’ve always felt I needed to state my position and leave it at that. 

I wouldn’t want to win if all I could do was say awful things about the other person and I definitely wouldn’t want to be elected if the voters thought I was dishonest.
 
It doesn’t seem either candidate cares much one way or the other about the farm vote. 

I can remember 20 years ago the Presidential candidates always laid out a farm platform, but that hasn’t been done in more recent elections.

Most farmers in Kansas vote Republican, but I am wondering if that will hold true this year. 

I didn’t vote for President Obama either time but I have prospered more under his Presidency than any other, whether that has anything to do with him is up for debate.
 
I think I speak for a majority of Americans when I say, “Is this really the best we can do?” If it is then we’ve lost track of the values that made this country great.
 
Perhaps the UK would grant me and my family political asylum. Then I could work for Farmers Weekly full time.

Brian Hind farms 1,250ha of prairie land, of which 960ha is family owned and the rest rented. Of this, 330ha is arable cropping with maize, soya, grain sorghum, alfalfa plus a mix of rye, triticale and turnips for grazing his herd of 400 beef cattle. Grassland is used to produce hay.