As the 2016 presidential election winds down to an exhaustive finish, the scandals seem to only amplify with each passing moment, from horribly disgusting statements both candidates made to the threat both candidates present to America’s greatest treasure: Democracy.

Throughout the rest of this presidential cycle, Donald Trump’s statements questioning the credibility and integrity of the electoral process will be dissected, analyzed and discarded once a more controversial topic comes up. For now though,Trump’s latest comments will be treated as petulant and potentially disrupting the peaceful transfer of power after elections. This take will conceal the truth, if any, to Trump’s claims.

However, the spotlight that follows Donald Trump and the desire to capture each and every wildly inappropriate statement he makes  will obscure any validity in his more rational comments.

The US economy is slanted and tilted toward the wealthy, gaining revenue on the backs of ordinary Americans. One need look no further than the Wells Fargo scandal to see the reality of this. This brazen manipulation of the US economy  happens because our politicians are bought. Look at Citizens United, which allows corporations to run ads in favor of or in opposition to a candidate, as long as the backers are known to the public. However, the concept of  dark money, which  allows billionaires to buy limited liability companies and use these LLC’s to pump money and advertisements to selected causes and candidates, reveal the harsh reality of our “rigged” political system.

If the economic system is rigged and we cannot change the system because politicians are bought, what makes the thought of a rigged vote so outrageous and abominable? People physically adding or subtracting votes cannot be worse than the systematic shutdown of the public’s role in public policy. Politicians now are no longer beholden to the public but to the establishment and the billionaires who can make or break their campaigns.The Dakota Pipeline, and various trade deals are recent examples where policy is decided upon against the public’s wishes and in favor of corporations. The difference is that – once again – Donald Trump wavered from the typical candidates we have seen in that he is willing to tear down a system that has allowed businesses such as Pharma, Casino and Big Oil to succeed, which scares elected officials.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign even embraces the fears that Trump gave voice to and states on her website “Americans are understandably cynical about a political system that has been hijacked by billionaires and special interests.” The site goes on to explain  how she intends to make the election system fairer through campaign reform which would force elected officials to act in the good interests of their electorate.

The most perplexing aspect of  this statement is that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton might be the biggest beneficiary to Citizen’s United since the Supreme Court ruling. Not only that but one can infer from the Wikileaks dump that her campaign and her Super-PAC’s work in unison which is supposedly the only positive about the ruling.

In short, Trump may be a whining bully or simply alerting and reminding Americans that our votes remain the most important thing we have and that,  as a democracy, “WE, the people” must remain alert to all attempts to hijack these elections.