Not knowing, plus obliviousness to the dire, widespread consequences of not knowing, is in this year. Naturally, since ignorance almost never serves bliss, gloom and doom take center stage. Thus the Trumpster stays afloat, the Know-nothing media jester for whom everything and everyone (but DJT) is broken, rigged or corrupt. As Michael Moore keeps declaring, millions of understandably-angry, under-employed, ex-middle-class folks delude themselves that Trump, not Clinton, will deliver job training, infrastructure opportunities and direct support for their families.

Trump, who hits both guys and gals below-the-belt, shows himself demonstrably bereft of any skill linked to holding office but PR slickness. Certainly not running a competent, adult, issue-related campaign -- and the outcome has massively corrupted our campaigning, perhaps permanently. That happens when 45% of voters ignore the damage from turning campaigns into personality-driven, mud wrestling grudge matches — all about surface impressions and reckless rhetoric from the trivial to the profound. His untrustworthiness in describing all of reality dwarfs HRC’s far more conventional, political disgraces, especially since her flaws (deceptions, emails, Clinton Foundation cronyism) have been identified, thus baked in. Not so with the Donald’s incompletely vetted private life, and more scandals would be no surprise.

Intentions aside, FBI head Comey has converged in the public sphere the prowess of the FBI with Trumpism, instantly making voters less competent, awarding government a black eye, and reinforcing the folly America looms as failed state. Worsened by excruciating timing, Comey has managed to revitalize the blundering Trump campaign by publicizing an inquiry about which the FBI admits its ignorance, compounded by the devastating electoral impact. Let’s face it: the only question a week ago was whether Trumpism would be routed or simply rejected. Comey now allows Trump to get away with not pivoting, despite massive evidence he was losing big-time. Or “bigly,” a Trumpism.

Comey’s bizarre maneuver has done more, replicating Trump’s nervy “suspense” mode, most famously whether he’ll accept national election results. Comey, like Trump, thus turns suspense (not knowing) and unpredictability into virtues — plus handing the Donald a huge, undeserved cudgel against HRC. That, despite no stated probable cause, like hard evidence, even whether there’s a suspect or violation. Just what we needed: another election body blow in the finale. The only good news I see is the Comey collision (or unintended collusion) didn’t happen this Friday, that is, without time to vilify it.

Not Knowing is What Trump Does Best

“What Trump doesn't know” — inciting his endless, laughable fabrications every third sentence — is the core to his electoral appeal. Having never served the public, clearly refusing to learn politics or government, Trump by this weird logic must be the most suitable candidate. Disruption uber alles. And now days later, thanks to Comey’s disruption, everything is muddled with triviality, markedly less clear about what matters most. Except for the Donald’s certitude, that any FBI inquiry (not yet even about her) indicts and convicts Hillary in advance — as guilty as sin.

Ignorance and/or reams of stupidity are far more likely to distort election results than non-existent “voter fraud.”  No mass or internet media, biased or not, competes with this combined train wreck that amps up what we don’t know —in fact defies what Comey himself declared last summer: there is no criminal email case here, nothing to indict about ill-advised communications.

Today’s self-evident truth: a large majority knows how HRC will govern: she has a political past along with policy proposals, good or bad, that square with her rendition of our greatest problems. No one knows what Mr. Unpredictability will do because he lacks the will or ability to communicate what kind of president he will be — other than loud, disruptive and vulgar, if not vengeful. His subversive campaign, like his person, follows a single track, claiming what he doesn’t know trumps all professional knowledge, whether advisers, politicians, generals, climate scientists, economists, Constitutional lawyers, every elitist phony or crook.

Whatever the reasons, Comey has badly muddied the waters with indirection and innuendo. And that mud flies when the Trump court of public opinion outrageously convicts HRC of crimes against the state. Thus Trump's indefensible claims HRC doesn’t deserve to run, should be in jail (and will be, if DJ wins) — and were she elected, she’ll rewrite every standard for political corruption.

Comey the Useful Trump Idiot?

Has not Comey in fact helped turn politics into Trump’s twisted fantasy— an unverifiable, anxiety-riven reality-TV narrative where suspect due process and incredibly unhelpful (FBI) notices increase “suspense” without real or minimum knowledge? That’s why Comey’s disgrace, aside from electoral fallout, induced massive bi-partisan blowback.

High time to distinguish generally uninformed folks who don’t know stuff from advocates for Trumpian extremism, willfully holding their untruths to be self-evident. And ripples are wide-ranging in a democracy: do voters in this stretch run now have more good information on which to decide — or do they have less, say, vs. a week ago? Is this not the ultimate measure whether the electorate can perform as good citizens: sufficiently reliable knowledge of what’s at stake?

Ultimately, the only overall philosophic justification for our absurdly long, absurdly expansive campaigns is the (now forlorn) hope they educate and engage, pressing distracted voters to take public policy seriously every four years. Three debates failed here because Trump can’t debate, dealing primitive demagoguery, not evidence or logic. Past elections, good or bad, held enough high ground to imagine campaigning pressed voters to address what government can and can’t do. This time, Trump reduces all to the bizarre sound bites and the absurdity of what he alone can do — and how HRC will flop because she’ll be in prison.

Darkness Taints a Wounded Election

Comey here reinforces the noxious message that Trump pushes — that elections are solely personality shootouts, devolving into which side can throw more mud that sticks. That’s why experts think the winner this season is the one to makes the election about the other. That’s a dramatic, anti-democratic, anti-thought decline in my view. Comey didn’t create but he accelerated the assumption elections are solely about media perceptions, like selling detergents, just like so many cynics say.

The road to infamy is not paved only by crude demagoguery but when once-honorable institutions reinforce the worst of political instincts by a ruthless, self-absorbed blowhard. In the end, the confusion Comey has produced mirrors the gross unclarity of his statement. The celebrity TV huckster wins the game when elections are reduced to grimy, low-level public relations fisticuffs.

After months wherein Trump ludicrously fantasized he could fix everything, the overall negatives are impossible to deny — an election besmirched by ignorance, cheap shots, and unfathomable leaps of faith. No wonder so many already think all elections have devolved into slick PR stunts. Tragically, unconfirmed, surface perceptions, however inadvertently reinforced by Comey, taint the final week before the election. I see no upside. Comey’s major league blunder adds nothing but doubt to the credibility of democratic elections, aligning him, like it or not, with the worst of Trumpism.