Tag Campaign

Oh Lord, Please Send Me a Sign!

Michael 3 Comments
It’s that time of year again. Leaves fall and campaign signs blossom. Can you say “blossom” in reference to weeds?
 
Any election brings out the signs like that’s going to push the undecided voter over somebody’s edge, but in a presidential election year the ever growing number of signs is beyond full bloom! Or full weed as the case may be. 
 
One would think one sign per candidate per yard should be sufficient. Several municipalities around here thought the same thing as ordinances had been considered limiting the number of signs that could be placed in a yard. Yep, that failed miserably. The local officials were willing, even passed some of those local laws. Candidates, committees, political parties, and “activist” groups petitioned courts, filed suits, and challenged rulings until the regulations were all either overturned, or withdrawn. All so we can drive past neighborhoods where trim colors on houses and flower beds are regulated but where 25, 30, even 40(!) identical signs can legally, if not esthetically, block our view of those houses and border plantings. 
 
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So it was nice to see something different while I was out on the road last week. A hug. A sign with a hug. Now there’s something that deserves a yes vote!
 
 

The truth, the whole truth, and anything but the truth

Michael 1 Comment
Even in the midst of world wide crises, nation wide closures, and seeming interstate competition of who can develop the most animosity among neighboring states by being either ridiculously lenient or unnecessarily harsh with their approach to virus control, US Presidential elections go on and with them the quadrennial exercise in truth stretching, whopper telling, and general misrepresentation we call political ads.
 
My memory goes back only as far as the 1964 election (I was here for the ’56 and ’60 go ’rounds but I was more interested in the Ringling Brothers’ version of three ring circuses those years) but I can tell you without a doubt, to my knowledge the only occupant of the Oval Office to get there without casting aspersions on his opponent’s reputed good name was Gerald Ford.
 
I suspect it will be nastier than usual this year what with so many people having nothing better to do than to get on social media and join in with the professional besmirching. Truth goes out the window when people spend over 2 billion dollars (yes, that is a “b”) to get a temporary job than pays a mere $400,000 a year. (To give you a little perspective, that is less the minimum salary for all the major American sports leagues and well less than half the minimum NBA salary. As the old saying goes, but they had a better year.) 
 
You would think with that kind of money floating around people would be able to find something their candidate did right to qualify him or her for the position rather than using it to dig up what the opposition did wrong. Or often, to fabricate something that looks like wrong doing. As I wrote 4 years ago, there is actually a regulation that forbids any media outlet from vetting, editing, or refusing a Presidential political ad regardless of content. Truth. The Campaign Reform Act of 2002 takes pains to not mandate the veracity or any requirement to confirm the veracity of any claim made in a campaign ad. With the party conventions about a month away and the election another 3 months after that, the airways, social outlets, mailboxes, and road sides will soon be overflowing with effluent.
 
This is where I usually wrappings up with some pithy saying or on rare occasions actual insight. Sorry, but for this mess I got nothing. I’ll borrow a line from old TV. While you’re out on the mean and nasty streets of American politics in a Presidential election year, remember, be careful out there.
 
truth

Seeing Isn’t Believing

Michael Leave a comment
It’s been a busy past couple of weeks. What days haven’t been spent at doctor appointments have been spent at dialysis,  then last Friday I made an unplanned trip to the outpatient surgery unit to have my fistula opened. Something I’ve taken note of on all these trips is how the view has changed on the same roads since the beginning of this month.
 
Thanks to the miracle of arbochemistry, and my decision to take residence along the hills and mountains of Western Pennsylvania, I’ve been treated to the increasingly colorful forests that can be seen from almost any road between here and there in the area. 
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Of course you do know that those oranges and reds that we wait for each fall are always in the leaves. We can’t see them in July because there is so much chlorophyll in the leaves that only its green is visible. As the air cools and the light fades less chlorophyll is produced, the camouflage is lifted, and those vibrant fiery colors come out of hiding. Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean those colors weren’t there last month. Don’t believe me? Ask your favorite tree.
 
Leaves aren’t there only things that hide all their colors. Across America Election Day is fast approaching. “Off year elections” it’s called. Some states are fortunate enough to have Governor or state house and row office elections this year. In a couple weeks here in Pennsylvania, like many states, all we will have to vote for are county, school district, and municipal offices. 
 
I haven’t seen one ad, recieved one post card, or heard one news story for any local office even though local government is the one that most closely touches people’s lives. But everywhere campaigning abounds. Just not for this year. There are all kinds of news about what’s coming up in a year and a couple weeks. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing though. As the campaign seasons change, support becomes cooler, and somebodies’ dreams fade, their veneer will be replaced by what was always there, just hidden from view by large quantities of camouflage. It could turn out to be quite fiery. How vibrant may be a different story.
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None Of The Above

Michael 1 Comment

About a week ago, She of We received a phone survey regarding the upcoming Presidential election.  Buried among other questions was the crux of the survey, and the crux of the matter. “If the election was held today, would you vote for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?”  Why only two choices?

That’s the problem with this entire election.  This and several before.  We are presented with two candidates for a job neither has the qualifications for.  And we have to make a choice.  So here is our choice.  None of the above, but far from nobody.

In the beginning, all ballots were written, and all candidates were write-in.  Even then there were political parties but the emphasis 230-some years ago was policy, not party.  Those who voted did so for a person and his policy, not for how slick the party made their candidate sound or how incompetent they attempted to make others appear.  And when the elector determined for whom he would cast his ballot, he placed pen to paper and committed his vote to writing. 

We want to bring it back.  Not just the write-in part, but the whole thought behind the election process.  This is supposed to be our head of state.  Do we want our solver of domestic problems, our representative to the world determined by a sound bite, a hair color, a slogan, or an accusation?  We fully intend to consider all the possible candidates – everyone who has ever said at some point that he or she intends to serve the American public and then acted in a manner that reflected true selfless service.  We will fully consider our priorities for the executive process.  It probably won’t be health care, gay marriage, or who has more friends on his or her Facebook page.  It will be what affects us.  It will be probably what affects everybody if everybody would listen to themselves rather than the party campaign ads.  Then when we find who will work to our best interest, will we cast our vote.  It will certainly be a write in.

Will this really prove anything?  If two people spend a lot of time and effort and write in two very serious leaders, no, it won’t prove anything.  But if you join us we can be heard.  If you really don’t like the choices the parties have given you, then don’t vote for them.  But please, don’t just not vote.  Do your research.  Find your best leader.  Then cast your vote for your best choice.

If you can convince a few others to do likewise, then do it.  On Election Day we could have a million people, maybe 10 million people voting for a leader rather than for the less of two evils.  Vote for the greatest candidate you know.   We know we won’t all vote for the same person.  There could be 10 million different write in candidates.  But that will be 10 million people who have told the parties that we are through with their idea of electability.  We don’t need a candidate.  We need a President.  We need a leader.

If we vote like it really matters we can make a difference, and we have to start voting like it really matters.

Now, that’s what we think.  Really.  How ‘bout you?