Hey primary voters, here’s mud in your eyes
I didn’t affix the
”
I Voted
”
sticker to my clothes when I turned in my absentee ballot on
Tuesday, but I did accept it with pride.
Being allowed to have a say in who will make decisions on my
behalf is a wonderful privilege, even though the sum of those
decisions hasn’t seemed to help our county or state very much
recently.
Hey primary voters, here’s mud in your eyes
I didn’t affix the “I Voted” sticker to my clothes when I turned in my absentee ballot on Tuesday, but I did accept it with pride.
Being allowed to have a say in who will make decisions on my behalf is a wonderful privilege, even though the sum of those decisions hasn’t seemed to help our county or state very much recently.
I have relished the opportunity to vote since I turned 18. The candidates and measures and propositions that I have supported have been a mix of good and bad, helpful and pointless, but I had an ownership stake in them – a hallmark of democracy.
Do-overs would have been nice on some of the people and policies that garnered my vote, though I wouldn’t trade the chance to cast my ballot. Those who ignore that right and choose to sit on the sidelines and complain are only hurting themselves.
My hope in local elections is always that the leading vote-getter will have 50 percent (plus one) of the vote, so a November run-off is avoided. As much as I like receiving mail, the mountain of expensive junk I have received this election cycle could fill my recycling bin many times over.
The mud-slinging and finger-pointing and name-calling plastered on slick, tri-fold mailers does not inform my decision-making in a positive way. I want a candidate to tell me why he or she is qualified to serve, not why their opponent is not.
It’s like being a beauty pageant contestant and pointing out your opponent’s facial mole in the hope that judges will pick you because you are the less ugly person. In fact, pointing out an opponent’s negatives instead of extolling your positives is ugly.
This year, like in every election cycle, false or misleading campaign mailers circulated and then were half-heartedly denounced by the candidates that benefited from them.
“I didn’t authorize that attack ad,” a candidate would say. Would they then send out a retraction or denouncement of the false or misleading information contained in that ad? Nope.
The Republican gubernatorial primary was a great example of how the political blather of television ads just muddies the water.
Here’s what I learned from watching TV over the past few months:
Steve Poizner is a true conservative and his opponent’s name is Liberal Meg Whitman. Poizner is also a liberal and Whitman has conservative principles. Poizner supports Arizona’s immigration law. Whitman agrees with Barack Obama. Poizner supported Al Gore. Whitman is for amnesty. Poizner supports partial-birth abortion.
Ah, that cleared it up.
Democracy is a wonderful thing that needs to be viewed with a discerning eye.
Hey, this proposition says my car insurance rates could go down if I vote for it. Wait a minute, it also says they could go up and it’s paid for by the insurance industry.
Look, this one says a yes vote will give more power to the voters when it comes to decisions about energy delivery. What? It was written and funded by PG&E?
Such is our system, which, despite its flaws, is still the best in the world.
Now that the primary is over, let’s hope candidates take responsibility for removing their signs from every street corner in town, wipe the proverbial mud off their hands and that the winners get ready to work on our behalf – whether we voted for them or not.
To the handful of candidates who will be battling in a run-off for our vote in November, stay as positive and honest as possible. Tell us what you’ll do, what you believe in, why you’re the best one to serve on our behalf.
Run as if it were a one-candidate race. I don’t care what the other guy can’t or won’t do; I care about what you can and will do. When you sling mud, you are the one who gets dirty.
Adam Breen writes a blog at http://thebreenblog.blogspot.com and teaches newspaper and yearbook classes at San Benito High School. He is a reporter for The Pinnacle and former editor of the Free Lance.
