What’s that old saying?
“If you can’t say anything nice, write a political ad?”
Actually, I’ve been silent for these lo weeks because I really didn’t have much nice or constructive to say about the upcoming election.
But as we’ve come closer to the day (Thank your deity here), it’s become clearer and clearer that the result of Tuesday will be … absolutely nothing.
It’s not going to matter who wins in the final votes. It doesn’t matter which controversial proposition is approved by voters. In the end, half of us will continue to distrust the other half, characterizing those on the right as “rich-only-in-it-for-themselves-pseudo-racists” and the folks on the left as “hippie-heal-the-world-wealth-distributing-socialists.”
And for all the hatred, lies, exaggerations and outright distractions, we’ll still be faced with the same problems we had before: No one willing to work with the other because they’re afraid of the consequences of being labeled a traitor to the cause.
Look at the hell Chris Christie caught this week as he praised the efforts of President Barack Obama in response to Hurricane Sandy. He didn’t do anything more than say that the President had come to the aid of his state, and was working to help. And yet, there’s Rupert Murdoch threatening him on Twitter that if Mitt Romney loses the election, it’ll be his fault.
Sigh.
This election has taken a heavy emotional toll on so many of us. It has been so negative. Nearly every ad – whether on my TV, on my radio or stuffed in my mailbox (and there’s been a lot of those) – is negative. Republicans attacking Democrats. Democrats attacking Republicans. Democrats attacking Democrats. Republicans attacking Republicans. No one wants to be seen as soft, so they attack, attack, attack.
And that’s not even counting the never-ending blitz of ads for California’s endless supply of propositions. Every one of them is predicting the end of the world if it is or is not passed.
My absolute favorite ones are the ones that are attacking the unions, and how they’re the cause of this mess. Yes, let’s blame the unions. The teachers, civil servants and workers who are just looking to get the most they can while they can … those people?
It’s funny, when a corporate CEO gets the most he can, including multi-million dollar parachute buyouts after failing; it’s just the cost of doing business. But the people who teach our students, make sure fires are put out and work to put food in the stores, they’re greedy for trying to protect their pensions.
Look, I understand the cynicism and anger toward Proposition 30 and federal health care reform. No one wants to see more of their money going to the government.
But the truth of the matter is, we’re already paying for much of these programs in different ways.
I think back to this past summer, and “Papa” John Schnatter claiming pizza prices would go up 14 cents to comply with the federal health care mandate that Romney wants to repeal. Fourteen whole cents for that kid making your pizza to get that cough or infected sore checked out? A bargain.
And how much are you already paying to help your child’s school. My son started school this year, and the fundraisers are non-stop. We have weekly smoothie drives, a jog-a-thon, donations sought to go on their first field trip (including a fee for me to drive myself to go volunteer at the event). Oh, and there’s the pressure from the school for students to make up absences by going to school on Saturday. Because the schools need to squeeze every penny of that average daily attendance funding.
Yeah, I know. I’m being flippant. These are serious issues that are going to affect generations to come, including my son. And I’m just another one of those Huff-Post-liberal-biased-media-member. Save your virtual breath.
In actuality, I’m just a beaten-down-half-shell of a man who’s tired of watching his country explode in a partisan battle of semantics.
So, go vote Tuesday. Maybe it’ll help this time. Not holding my breath.
