No matter what the outcome, I will be very happy when Nov. 2 is over and done with.
I am tired of hearing political commercials in my sleep. I am tired of having said sleep interrupted by 1:24 a.m. robo-calls. I am tired of everyone blaming everyone else for all the ills of America.
I think my dear 80+-year-old friend "Helen" says it very well: http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/i-can-see-november-on-my-tv-so-i-turned-it-off/ I, too, would like to toss my cable/dish 24-hour news bullshit and trade it in for the old rabbit ears. But I'm still likely to get the all-night commercials and the robo-calls in the wee hours of the morning.
When is everyone else going to get it? I don't want to hear what your plan is. Because believe it or not, I know damn well that your "Plan," whatever it may be, is only a pipe dream. It's only what you want us to hear. Because once you get in that deep mucky morass that is Congress, with a few hundred other people's points of view mixed in, your plan is only as good as the one little tiny point where it intersects with someone else's ... and so on. As I see it, government is just one big pyramid scheme.
I am also tired of hearing that people are Against Big Government. That is all well and good ... but my question is, why are you running for office? Isn't that just going to perpetuate the "Big Government?" Could you please define "Big Government" for me?
One of the worst parts of the whole campaign season is the ads that are not talking about anyone's plan, or beliefs, or values. They are talking about what their opponent has done wrong. I'm not really interested in what your opponent has done wrong this week or last week or 10 years ago. I'm interested in what are your core beliefs. What is motivating you to run for this position? What do you hope to accomplish?
The only amusing part of this is how they try to find the least-flattering--bordering on the ridiculous--photographs of an opposing candidate to put in their ads. You know what I'm talking about: the ones with their mouths wide open (presumably spouting bullshit). Or sleeping during a court case or a congressional session. Or whatever. The kind of pictures that people usually take of me. I would love to have that staff job. But I think maybe they hire those people from TMZ.
I always used to label myself as "apolitical" but I really can't classify myself that way anymore, now that I've joined the political fray too. I truly have no aspirations beyond my current village council position, but it has really made me more aware that "politics" is a part of everyday life. In this capacity, as well as in my former life as a newspaper editor, I have actually had conversations with real political candidates. And from each of them, all I really want to know is: What do you believe? It's not easy to get to that place, because most of them just spout what they think you want to hear. (Sometimes, ad nauseum). But, from a few of them, I've actually learned that they do have sincere opinions and beliefs, and I admire those candidates' honesty in telling me what their beliefs are ... whether or not I agree with them 100%.
Now, how they hope to accomplish a specific project is always pretty nebulous. But I admire the ones who are willing to admit that. I can see from my own experience in local government that actual "accomplishments" you can point to are pretty few and far between. Sometimes you hit it lucky, but most of the stuff you deal with is pretty simple and often mundane.
Oh, and then there is the candidate who admitted to me that with term limits, it's pretty hard to get anything accomplished in our state government system. Because each representative is only allowed two terms, the first six to nine months of their first term are usually a learning time. And about the time they figure out what they are doing, it's time to start running for re-election. So, I did some quick math and asked if that meant that out of every 24-month term, which actually starts two months after the election, reducing the actual "term" to 22 months, there is about six months' worth of work actually done. His answer was, yes, that's probably a pretty good assessment of how it works.
Really? We are paying people for this? Lots of money? And we have so many people out of work in our state? We can't finance our schools, but these people are getting paid for two years to do a half a year's worth of work? Could we just get rid of this "big government" for starters?
Come on over sometime and take an ugly picture of me. I think I might be featured in someone's political ad next time I have to run for re-election.
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