The Political Season Stinks
I’m not sure if it makes a difference if you’re a Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, or live in an urban setting or a more rural one…. I think we’re all coming to the conclusion that active election political seasons stink.
With the growth of social media and multi-channel news sources, I sometimes believe that the equivalency of the argument about “the color of the sky, where one thinks it’s red and the other thinks it’s blue” is equivalent to some of the political rhetoric I hear daily. It’s election season and it gets tiring. From the radio or television, you literally hear back-to-back commercials on the exact same issue with some type of data or statistics that indicate a 180° opposite outcome from the two political camps. Statistically, that’s impossible. But if you watch any advertisements about politicians, this sad state of affairs seems to be the norm.
Just here in Nebraska, a place that I love, a gubernatorial candidate is accused by multiple women of sexual improprieties. Horrible stuff. Should never happen. I’m not sure he had my vote to begin with, but it just makes you shake your head. How in the world did he get this far without this being discussed at some level? And God bless the women who came out of the shadows to share these terrible moments with the public. And believe it or not, the candidate goes on to sue one of them for lying. It’s more than you want to pay attention to.
I remember when Colin Powell said he didn’t want to run for President, although he was wildly popular across both political spectrums, because he didn’t want to put his family through it. It wasn’t worth it, he said. The further we go into that future, the more I realize he’s probably right. Would you want to put yourself and your family through some of these things? And it’s not large offices that are being sought that have the monopoly on challenges or problems. My local school district board race experienced someone tweeting out something completely inaccurate they caused four or five good people to drop out of the race, all saying the same thing. “It’s just not worth it to my family or my professional life.”
Not only am I tired of watching it, listening to it, and being exposed to it, it’s reducing the candidate fields for important public offices to groups of people who do not include some of the community’s best and brightest. That’s a sad indictment on society and detrimental to our future. I’m still an optimist overall, believe we can overcome, but do shake my head at the silliness and stupidity of our political season.
