By Dr. Mercola

This year’s presidential election is not for the faint of heart. In fact, over the past several months, mental health professionals have noted a significant uptick in anxiety and emotional distress related directly to today’s elections.

In a national poll by a University of Minnesota psychologist, 43 percent of respondents reported emotional stress related to Trump’s campaign, 28 percent were stressed out about Clinton, and 93 percent said this year’s elections are more stressful than any previous election.¹

The American Psychological Association also reported that 52 percent of American adults found the 2016 election to be a “significant source of stress.”² As reported by U.S. News in early October:³

“‘I’ve been working as a psychologist since 2005, [and] this is the first time I’ve seen a lot of anxiety about the presidential election,’ says Dana Lipsky, who works with individuals and couples in Arlington … just outside the District of Columbia.

‘If I see 22 clients a week, about 15 of them will say something about the election.’ Electoral conflicts between spouses or partners have become so heated that Lipsky has counseled some couples to not discuss politics with each other unless it’s in couple’s therapy.

‘These disagreements become pretty destructive,’ Lipsky says. ‘Emotions get triggered and people don’t talk for days.'”

On November 3, a CBS News poll revealed more than 8 in 10 voters feel “repulsed” by the presidential campaign, with both candidates being viewed as dishonest by a majority of voters.⁴

Forced Transparency Reveals Unsettling Truths

Surprisingly, my article two weeks ago, “How Soda Companies Influence Policy Through Ties With Public Health Organizations” seems to have triggered this underlying stress point.

Many of my readers became very upset about what they perceived as an attack on Hillary Clinton, which was automatically — albeit incorrectly — assumed to be an endorsement for Donald Trump.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologize for the imprecise communication. The fact of the matter is I’ve exposed collusion between industry and politicians on both sides of the aisle for many years now.

The soda industry has been exposed over the past few years using a model that works for many industries.

Funding shoddy science at respected universities, using the media to promote false talking points, and filling pockets of politicians to influence policy are manipulative strategies that industry has successfully used to hide the truth from the public while filling their corporate coffers.

It doesn’t matter if they’re Democrats or Republicans, my chief aim has always been to reveal the root of the problem, which is that the United States is largely run by corporations, to the detriment of us all.

Major industries are creating, and will continue to create policy regardless of who’s in power. Most of the laws passed today are written by industry lawyers, not politicians.

But, I would like to focus on my optimism toward the future and how we can use our individual power to collectively foster positive change — regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

The US Has Become a Corporate Oligarchy

Unfortunately, positions of power have always attracted people who most want that power, and today we have many morally flawed people working in a corrupt government.

The goal of the multinational corporate agenda is to continue concentrating power at the federal and global levels. Ultimately, the goal is to take power away from the individual and concentrate it at the highest level possible: This IS about control of the global population.

As noted in a 2014 study by two political scientists, the U.S. is an oligarchy, not a democracy, with the wealthiest elites in American society wielding the most control over the issues Congress and the White House ultimately take action on.⁵

More appropriate, perhaps, would be to call it a corporate oligarchy, as the main thrust of power really lies with “The Big Six,” i.e., the banking, pharmaceutical, agricultural, military-industrial complex, energy and media industries.

Career politicians and the allowance of massive corporate political contributions ensure this oligarchy will be a dominant force everyone needs to be aware of.

Banks, Oil and Big Pharma Form a Symbiotic Whole

As previously revealed, big banks manipulate and influence your health in a number of different ways.

The suppression of natural health treatment can be traced back to the corrupting influences of our financial system, for example, and the medical profession is cleverly manipulated and influenced in such a way as to bolster profits for the pharmaceutical industry.

The oil industry actually played an integral role in creating the conventional systems of medicine, finance, agriculture and education in the first place, and it was instrumental in creating the blueprint for success and power-building through consolidated monopolies.

The drug industry has since become one of the most powerful political and governmental influencers, with people wandering back and forth through perpetually rotating revolving doors between drug companies and the federal agencies tasked with their regulation, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

As just one example, this kind of collusion is precisely what allowed the current opioid addiction epidemic to be created, and it’s why no one seems willing to address its roots, which are over-prescription and misuse of these potent drugs based on fraudulent marketing and what has become typical, so-called science-biased medicine.

It’s also why the “solution” being focused on is simply to make overdose-reversal drugs more widely available, as this feeds into the drug companies’ pockets rather than emptying them out. They profit from the problem they’ve created, and the federal approvals shield them from much of the liability they deserve.

Another way Big Pharma gains significant influence over policy relating to health is by lobbyists plying Congressmen and their staffers with gifts and donations. Political lobbying is one of the primary reasons why drug companies control most of the health industry rather than just being an auxiliary or supportive part of it.

Big Ag, Media and the Military-Industrial Complex

Conflicts of interest also permeate our agricultural policies, which in turn influence public health. At present, our agricultural policies feed right into Big Pharma’s agenda, creating a steady flow of new patients, along with preventable public health crises such as antibiotic-resistant disease and pandemic outbreaks.

Corruption within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also maintains and promotes the use of toxic chemicals rather than organic farming because it benefits the chemical biotechnology industry currently monopolizing agriculture.

The media has also been consolidated — to the point that 90 percent of what you read in newspapers, magazines and see on TV is now controlled by six media giants. This consolidation allows for tremendous influence on all matters, and has led to censorship being more the rule than the exception.

True unbiased, in-depth investigative journalism has joined the hairy-nosed wombat as an incredibly rare and near-extinct species, and you’d be wise to not swallow whole everything you read in mainstream media.

American internet giants have also become notorious for being part of the U.S. surveillance apparatus, which whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed being far more extensive and invasive than anyone had ever imagined.

In 2013, Germany’s top security official warned Germans should not use American websites such as Google or Facebook if they want to protect their privacy.⁶

Microsoft’s Windows 10 has also been outed as a major “spying tool” and private data collection apparatus.⁷ Indeed, electronic spying on dissenters that threaten the establishment’s agenda has become so prevalent, even the Department of Veterans Affairs has been accused of spying on whistleblower emails.⁸

Does Your Vote Count?

It’s easy to feel hopelessly powerless when faced with issues such as these, especially when viewed as a whole! But despite appearances, you DO have power — just not in the way you perhaps thought, or would like.

Getting back to where we started, with the presidential elections happening today, many are still unfamiliar with how the voting process actually works in the U.S. The TED video above explains the role of the Electoral College in the election process, and how it is possible for a clear public favorite to end up losing to a less popular candidate.

Don’t Panic — Refocus

Regardless of who wins the presidency today, please realize that your power as an individual lies in your day-to-day decisions, and that no matter who bears the title of President of the United States, the corporate influence will remain. If you don’t believe me, revisit “How First Lady’s Organic Garden Became a Junk Food Campaign.”

Michelle Obama had clearly wanted to promote a real solution, but she was no match for the junk food and agricultural industries. The same can be said for President Obama, whose campaign promise to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs) turned into the complete opposite, where federal law actually preempted the first state GMO labeling law in the country and barred all other states from pursuing the matter.

Politicians say what is necessary to get elected, based on the polling of talking points. A politician’s public talking points constantly “evolve” and are rarely consistent with their actions that benefit their corporate sponsors.

Also realize that creating divisiveness among people is part of a carefully orchestrated plan that works in the oligarchy’s favor, so we really need to get smarter about how we engage in the political process and avoid falling for their carefully constructed and sophisticated strategies that limit us from having any really hopeful choices.

As long as we’re at each other’s throats over things we have little or no control over, it distracts us from analyzing and addressing the underlying system that is creating the problems in the first place. So let people have their opinion, whether we’re talking about political or presidential candidates, because these are all false choices anyway.

Ultimately, controlling interests are writing the laws and paying the politicians to pass them. But knowledge is power, so use your knowledge to take control!

Avoid Victim Mentality by Realizing Where Your Power Lies

The power of the individual is alive and well, even in this deeply flawed system. It becomes yours by stepping OUTSIDE of the system with every decision and purchase you make. With every action you take, you also set the example for others to follow, thereby making you a change-agent within your own small circle of family, friends and acquaintances. In the end, our collective actions will create the changes that are so desperately needed, and thinking locally will eventually have a global effect.

Remember, the industries that are currently buying our politicians and writing their own laws cannot maintain power without your ongoing financial SUPPORT. While we may not have a significant choice in how our tax contributions are distributed to these industries through subsidies and contracts, we do have a very powerful influence by making responsible purchases each and every day.

Withdraw that support and you automatically redistribute financial power to a benevolent business aligned with your core principles.

A perfect example of this is when you buy locally-grown foods from an organic farmer. You’re empowering that farmer to continue growing foods for the community that support environmental regeneration and human health, and you’re disempowering the big junk food manufacturers that wield undue influence over agricultural policy. THIS is where your true power lies.

Realize ‘Left Versus Right’ Is a False Narrative

We should not play the game and choose to be part of this false narrative of “left versus right,” or “Democrat versus Republican.” Most people are still trapped in the mindset of opposition and there are great people across the board that need to come together. Readers of Mercola.com are split almost evenly between those identifying as Republican or Democrat, and working collectively has produced tremendous results by strategically organizing consumer marketplace pressure.

Sad but true, most federal positions are already occupied because those positions have been bought and paid for by massive corporate interests that do not represent the people.

This is also why we must not support any additional federal or globalist laws such as trade agreements, no matter how good they sound, because they are ALWAYS written by hard-nosed corporate interests. It’s hard enough to fight for public justice at local and state levels, and even more challenging to fight at federal and global levels.

Trade agreements are nothing more than tools to transition economic powers to global authorities, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). They in turn make ridiculous laws that ban even the most basic of rights for information, such as country-of-origin labeling (COOL).⁹ We also need to fight to end federal subsidies of junk food ingredients.

The concentration and accumulation of power is a clear and present danger to our individual rights, and this accumulation of power is attracting the worst kinds of people who seek control and power.

Food Independence Is the Key to Other Forms of Independence

It’s time to dissent, to step out of the globalist and federalist systems, and it all starts with your food. If you cannot grow your own, then get to know the farmer that can. Keep your money in your community; the closer the better. Kissinger said it best:¹⁰

“Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.”

As noted by Investment Watch:¹¹

“U.S. strategy deliberately destroyed family farming in the U.S. and abroad and led to 95 percent of all grain reserves in the world being under the control of six multinational agribusiness corporations.”

If you don’t like the state of the nation (or the world), stop eating processed and ultra-processed junk foods. Some may initially think this decision would have nothing to do with anything that is wrong in the world, but if you really give it some thought, you’ll realize that the more independence you gain with your food, the more independence you will create in other areas as well.

Because food is such a potent form of control, breaking that control mechanism will have a ripple effect that extends outward into many other industries and fields of activity, including the political arena. So, instead of getting “down” about this year’s election, use it as a motivation to step into your personal power, and join the revolution to create food independence.