Monday, May 17, 2010

Contentious elections and civility.

Tomorrow is the Primary Elections for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. I'll be away from work for the day working at the polls. That means today I had to do work I would have done tomorrow, and I've been working late until now.  I look forward to working at the polls.  I also look forward to not having to listen to any more mud slinging commercials on the television.  I know that time will again be filled with car, roof replacement and bath in a day ads, but I am tired of the political commercials.

Do you believe people who go to the polls and cast a vote are influenced by these negative over the top rants?  I don't.  I know people do watch them and people are influenced but I figure they are only influencing those who never vote.

This morning there was an article about our state's Senatorial election on the front page of the New York Times. The seat is being vacated by Sen. Jim Bunning. You may recall he is well known for doing little but trying to obstruct bills and falling asleep in committee readings.

The Republican Party is choosing a candidate as is the Democratic Party. The Times article was occupied with discussing the GOP race. The son of Ron Paul, Dr. Rand Paul from Bowling Green Kentucky, is running as a GOP candidate. He does this because he knows running as a Tea Party or Independent candidate would not work. Most of his contributions are coming from out of state.

The main line Republican candidate is Trey Grayson. He has an ad on television in which our senior Senator Mitch McConnell endorses him and lets us know he doesn't usually do this in the primary. His reason for endorsing a candidate in the primary is our president's overspending. The real reason is he doesn't want Dr. Paul in the seat because he might not listen to Sen. McConnell and lick his shoes when instructed to do so. After Mitch's statement Mr. Grayson speaks. He is proud that he is being endorsed by Sen. McConnell and other prominent Republicans. These others are not named but their pictures are shown. The only ones I can remember are Dick Cheney and Rudy Giuliani.

The first time I saw this ad I thought "Watch Trey Grayson shoot himself in the foot." He is currently trailing Dr. Paul by 15 percent, I think. Whatever the trailing percentage is, it's double digit.

The week end here was rainy, humid and cool. Reggie, who was out of town for the week end, asked me this morning, "Was it raining all day Saturday?" I couldn't remember. I know I went out a few times and it was raining every time. Other than that I spent the days inside doing inside things!

The local paper reprinted an editorial from the Dallas Morning News May 1st.      Considering how polarized and contentious every thing seems to be in the country, I was surprised to see that we tell the pollsters we prefer civility. I know I do. I think a well considered opinion is important. We should all think about what we believe and stand up for those beliefs. We should also be able to do so without raging, personal defamation and lying. Oh, by the way, a personal opinion isn't something you repeat verbatim from a cable news show.