Digging up poop, slinging it on the wall.

November 3, 2014

Bill Phillips is a friend of mine. You don’t have to like that. Bill is a smart man. You don’t have to like that, either. It is still a free country, for a little while.

Bill runs a blog called Phillips BillBoard. In his recent post he states:

Previously the cost of running for the legislature or local office was minimal.  Now it’s not only costly, but mean.

Where did all this meanness come from?  Who started it and why?

I responded to Bill’s post (awaiting moderation):

Uh! You are so on target. I don’t recall an election cycle so nasty. At the local level, even! If I had the slightest thought of getting back in before, I don’t now.

Sending letters saying someone will check to see if you voted. Offering “discount cards” for embarrassing photos. Radio ads stating clearly the word “carpetbagger” about a candidate. Accusing candidates of wanting automatic weapons in schools.

It’s a mob mentality. The kind of emotion that will get someone tried, convicted, and hanged before the U.S. Marshal gets in town. Maybe it’s born from the feeling of having no control or meaningful input. That oft referenced feeling that our votes don’t really matter, and politicians don’t listen to the constituents.

Whatever caused it, I hope it burns itself out soon. I hope mature leaders will call the brats out and put an end to it.

Early vote is down 11,000. If it foretells tomorrow’s turnout we may have a much bigger problem facing us.

While candidates on all sides are keeping quiet about these outrageous activities, I hope once the election is over and winners are decided they will find the balls to speak out against this sort of crap. It would be too much to expect  them to speak out BEFORE tomorrow’s election. After all, they are benefiting from the crap-slinging. Oh, they won’t admit it. But having these surrogates allows them to run a “clean” campaign on the issues.

If this trend doesn’t stop, we won’t have anyone worthy of serving. Consider:

  • 2007-2008 Approximately 7 percent of West Virginia residents reported past-month illicit drug use; the national average was
    8 percent. (White House report.)
  • 2009 West Virginia was one of 14 states with higher than national average divorce rates. (Census document)
  • 2011 West Virginia had a 35 percent illegitimacy rate. (Census document)
  • DUI arrests in West Virginia were 10,815 in 2012. (WV Gov Screenshot)

My point here is, if we keep up with the crap, if we keep digging up poop on people standing for office, slinging it on the wall to see what sticks, eventually we’ll run out of people to run. Nobody wants to subject themselves to that stuff.

I’m not saying everyone running is an illegitimate child, divorced, using drugs, getting a DUI. I’m pointing out that there are no perfect people. Everyone has a life history. Somewhere in everyone’s life history is something that an opponent, or a surrogate for that opponent, can dig up and sling. With the ability to “Google” anyone, finding that heat-of-the-moment post that a person may not normally say is easy. So easy, in fact, it may cost us many otherwise excellent candidates who would serve the constituents honorably.

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