It’s such a simple idea I’m not sure why someone hadn’t said
it sooner. Maybe they did but we just didn’t listen.
Joe Lieberman, the democrat senator from Connecticut, was
talking about his defeat in the democratic primary and his run
as an independent. “With all this bicker and fighting between
the parties I think we’ve all forgotten that we are all on the
same team. We are all Americans who want what’s best for our
country,” he told Glenn Beck on his radio program recently.
Okay, so that’s not the most original thought in the world
but it does speak volumes. I’m repeating for the benefit of
those who often ignore good advice. You may want to copy this
and pass it on to one of your favorite candidates. The spin
machines are so busy during the election season trying to paint
their party candidates as the “savior” and the other party
candidates as the “devil” we forget these candidates are all
Americans who love their country. The campaigns remind us that a
certain candidate may be guilty of the gravest error in
political life, which is flip-flopping on an issue. Gee, when I
went to college it was called changing your mind. There was
nothing wrong with that as long as you changed your position
based on new information or information that was previously
unknown.
Part of the blame is most certainly campaign advertising both
in print and on the air. These candidates have such a limited
amount of time their “handlers” have to point out the
differences between the two quickly. Most often that involves
pointing out what they consider to be the opponents failures…
with a capital “F”. And if they really want your attention they
will even resort to negative stereotypes they feel will cast a
cloud over the opponent. The ads that tout the positives of a
candidate are said to be ineffective because they don’t change
anyone’s mind.
Than, there are the buzz or hot words. “Liberal” and
“conservative” are used to paint a candidate as full of crazy
spending ideas or a war-mongering religious zealot. Political
consultants tell me those words work very effectively. And the
reason they work is because most of the voters are lazy, haven’t
done their homework on a candidate’s background, and tend to
vote based on one or two hot button issues.
Here’s another reason. I call it the win-lose paradigm.
Thanks to our fixation with sporting events EVERYTHING is
defined in terms of winning or losing. Did Israel or Hellbollah
win the war? Who’s the winner in the oil crisis? Looks like corn
farmers are the big losers in the ethanol war?
Well, I’m sorry. In my rather complicated and interconnected
world things are not always so black and white. Even the
difference between right and wrong, sorry Glenn, can be obscure.
On some days what appears to be a win turns out to be a loss.
The great majority of events in my life are just that, events
that don’t demand a score. Hey, I’m alive and I guess you would
have to call that a win. No, if I were dead, I’d be in heaven
right now and who can call that bad! Yes, but I’m sitting on a
ticking time bomb. No problem, that time bomb is a dud. Yes, but
I’m sitting in the middle of a freeway with a truck coming at me
going 80 miles an hour. No problem, I’ll just stop writing and
not finish the story and live on to fight another day.
My point is this as you head to the polls this November:
there are an awful lot of great candidates out there on all
sides that deserve your attention. They have sacrificed a lot of
time, money and even families for the honor of serving you. I
don’t remember anyone promising them it would be easy. I don’t
see them complaining when, for the umpteenth time in a row, only
a handful of people show up at those candidates’ forums to learn
how to say their names. They endure negative attacks and
skewering by interviewers for things they may or may not have
done. And every word they speak is dissected and twisted and
analyzed for hidden meanings and potential racial overtones.
Considering I’ve had the unique opportunity of meeting dozens
of candidates face to face I can tell you I haven’t found one
pariah among them. They are all decent Americans who just want
the opportunity to be heard. They are team players, every one of
them. If you like their ideas you can vote for them. If you
don’t like their ideas find another candidate. But at least you
owe them and the rest of us who truly cherish our form of
elective, representative government a few minutes of your time.
A vote, paid for by the blood of patriots, is a terrible
thing to waste in the team sport called “American Democrary!”
