Children love Halloween. Most adults do too.

After all, seeing our children and our grandchildren dressed in costumes like Cinderella or Ironman at home parties or going door to door,  exclaiming “Trick or Treat,” we feel their excitement. And, recalling our own childhood, we also understand too the sweet thoughts of all that candy.

Of course, that assumes that the annual celebration called Halloween is harmless — for kids, their parents and all of us.

To be sure, attitudes about Halloween are diverse. 

For example, some religions promote the celebration, while others bemoan it, and a few condemn it.

Perhaps, Father Gabriele Amorth strikes some balance with his statement that “If English and American children like to … dress up … as witches and devils … on one night of the year …that is not a problem.”

Then, the good Father Amorth strikes the all important qualifier: “If it is just a game … there is no harm in that.”

How true. If it is only children and only one night of a fantasy called Halloween.

Yet, in reality, there is the political Halloween game that runs 24/7 every week, every year.

And, unlike the children’s version, the implications of the political Halloween game are always far more ominous. Here’s why, through the fading prism of the just past children’s Halloween.

The year-round political Halloween game includes:

•Incumbents costumed as leaders perpetrating tax ‘tricks’ assessed upon the productive citizens in our society;

•Retail spending ‘treats’ redistributed directly to the unproductive and to personal cronies.

The year-round political Halloween game includes:

•Incumbents costumed as leaders busing around the country attending fundraising parties, visiting haunted attractions such as the next donor scandal factory. And all the while telling scary stories and setting bonfires of their own vanities.

The year-round political Halloween game includes:

•Incumbents costumed as leaders, whov erbally carve opponents into scary jack-o-lanterns while apple-bobbing with party insiders, playing pranks on the people, telling scary stories and producing what increasingly looks like a Halloween horror show.

For a long time, citizen concern has been simmering.

Foolishly, incumbent political Halloween game players have decided to turn up the rhetorical handle to hasten the proverbial witches brew.’

Richard is president of Olivastro Communications and founder of Citizens for Change. A professional member of the National Speakers Association, he is available pro bono for charitable fundraisers and public forums and can be reached via e-mail at RichOlivastro@gmail.com. or by phone at 1-877-RichSpeaks.