Optimism in Democrat circles is soaring. “Democrats’ convention surpassed their wildest expectations and added rocket fuel to a campaign that arguably didn’t need it,” wrote Axios.

How did Kamala Harris become so popular so suddenly? Mostly, by shapeshifting into a bulldog on crime and immigration, and a fierce defender of America’s national security.

Democrats know well that Harris’s leftist views and her abysmal record on these issues are deeply unpopular with most Americans. So she deftly danced away from them, and is casting herself as being to the right of her opponent. Trump is the open-borders guy, she insists.

Likewise Barack Obama at the convention. He essentially branded himself and his party as essentially conservative. Taking sections of the transcript of his speech, you would think he was a moderate Republican.

It’s an audacious lie. It is beyond bold to expect Americans to ignore all the evidence, forget all context, cast aside history, and accept a handful of platitudes, pretty words, smiles and dance moves as proof enough of political competence and trustworthiness in the nation’s highest office.

Yet sadly, for a stunning number of Americans, the ploy seems to be working.

“[I]f you are not informed, then the most patriotic thing you can do on Election Day is stay home,” the sage Thomas Sowell once wrote. “Otherwise your vote, based on whims or emotions, is playing Russian roulette with the fate of this nation.”

Do Americans really know how to elect a leader? Are the qualities that cause someone to stand out in a convention speech really the same qualities that qualify someone to lead?

Celebrity endorsements seem to be an important indicator of political acumen in many minds. Uttering positive-sounding words and making grandiloquent promises is a highly valued quality. Arrogance and narcissism have apparently become tremendous political virtues.

Does truth matter? Do the people so excited about the these political candidates really know anything important about them? Back in 2008, voters bought into an idea of hope and change; seven in 10 Americans thought the new president would improve race relations in the U.S. Meanwhile, they ignored several disturbing facts. Tom Brokaw admitted that the media didn’t vet this man.

A great many people seem to have learned nothing from that experience. Here we are in another cycle of uninformed citizens voting based on a political process distorted by money, by biased media coverage, and by lies peddled by the candidates about themselves and about each other.

In The Wonderful World Tomorrow—What It Will Be Like, Herbert W. Armstrong wrote that government is often selfish, greedy, vain, ambitious men lusting for rule and operating via secret deals, graft, immorality, deception and dishonesty. They promise peace and declare war. They promise prosperity and deliver debt, taxation and poverty. “We fail to find in human government any knowledge of life’s purpose, or dissemination of the true values.”

America’s form of government is perhaps the best on Earth for constraining tyranny and corruption and maximizing freedom. However, abuses of power are undermining the benefits of America’s government and turning its political process into a farce.

In Leviticus 26:19, God said to the ancient Israelites and their descendants who sinned: “I will break the pride of your power.” America is among those descendants—it has sinned, and its power is broken. But God doesn’t blame the leaders. He says the real problem is with the people. Our sins have brought these curses! Americans want to blame our problems on politicians—but the fact is, we put them in office.

When will we acknowledge that our problems are bigger than what any political leader can solve? And when will we accept responsibility for our part in the problems?

America is suffering a broken will, lawless leaders, social breakdown, racial strife and economic disaster. These are curses that God is bringing upon us—not because we have voted for the wrong candidates, but because we have turned our backs on Him.

How well do you suppose a politician today would fare who brought a message like that?