Everywhere you look there’s President Donald Trump packing them in at rally after rally, TV news interviews one after another and touring Hurricane Michael damages in Florida with First Lady Melania Trump who also just did a revealing and rare TV interview with ABC news.

Why all the visibility? The national midterm election is only three weeks down the road. Early voting is under way in many states. The Democratic and Republican candidates are all scrambling for attention. Negative attack TV ads are in full swing. But it’s the unpredictable Independent voter that will decide who will regain or maintain control of the U.S. Congress in 2018.

Characterizing all the Democrats as angry, President Trump at rally after rally keeps saying “You can vote for Democrat mob rule or you can vote for a Republican party that stands proudly for law and order, fairness, freedom and justice.”

In recent weeks major victories have been scored by President Trump namely his second appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court and the return of the 19th American citizen to be freed from foreign jails since the president took office without paying ransom. This past week saw the release of American Christian Pastor Andrew Brunson from a Turkish prison where he has spent the past two years as a political prisoner.

Upon his release Brunson first flew to Germany from Turkey and then directly to Washington, DC for a meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office. It was a moving moment to see Brunson praying for and with the president as that moment was broadcast live to the nation.

During their meeting President Trump insisted the U.S. did not make any kind of ‘deal’ to secure Brunson’s release. “We don’t pay ransom,” said the president in an apparent jab at former President Obama whose administration paid millions to extremist Islamic Iran to secure the release of a handful of political prisoners near the end of Obama’s second term.

Smart voters are seeing that the Democrats want to turn the entire USA – coast-to-coast – in to a sanctuary country without borders. Real American voters are rejecting the problems of France, Germany and Italy who are now overrun with non-citizens — mostly Muslims — that are milking these countries dry of public resources not to mention the influx of extremists and their inherent threat to peace.

This Friday in Mesa, Arizona President Trump will held a rally in support of Republican Martha McSally who is challenged by Democrat Krysten Sinema for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jeff Flake who has been a thorn in President Trump’s side since he took office right in there with the late Sen. John McCain.

McSally, 52, a retired military officer, is an impressive woman who has the singular distinction of being the first American woman to fly a fighter jet in combat in Iraq and Kuwait following the 1991 lifting of the prohibition on female combat pilots. She also is the first female commander of a United States Air Force fighter squadron based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. She currently serves in the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District.

McSally has the right stuff. Meanwhile, her opponent Sinema is all for open borders, socialist-type healthcare, no border wall and disbanding the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). Lord only knows why it’s a close race in the polls between these two candidates who are as different as night and day.

This election will prove the importance of the Independent voter. It is they who will determine the direction the USA takes for the next two years and beyond.

About the Author Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.Britt