Thankfully the elections are finally over and those crazy political ads will cease to exist ... at least temporarily. I suppose the mud-slinging campaigns have their proponents, but honestly, I'm less likely to vote for the slinger. Instead of telling me what's bad about the OTHER guy, tell me what YOU plan on doing to make things better!!
In my little home town we did good!!! This doesn't usually happen here ... it's a political nightmare. This election was a little different for the first time in forever. The race for Sheriff was won by the man who's worked there for the last 25 years. His opponent was the guy who retired from the City Police Department, the State Department of Justice and was now trying to get ANOTHER retirement from our County. Who needs $300,000 a year in retirement??? Nothing like being greedy!! Not only that, but I know him from back in the 70's ... and he was an awful representative of the police department then. Thankfully the voters got this one right!!
The other race was for Supervisor in MY district. I went to school with the first candidate, then knew him through the Police Department where he was eventually hired as Chief. When the City Council got in trouble over several matters, they "retired" him. He recently got elected to the City Council and although he screamed that he voted NO on a four lane expressway next to a school, a review of the meeting video revealed he voted YES, resulting in a terrible safety issue for the school kids. He always seemed to vote the way his buddy on the council voted. Thankfully, he LOST to a great guy who is a local businessman with experience in water issues (which we have lots of) and is one of the biggest opponents to the $40,000 EACH in discretionary funds the Board Members get to spend on whatever they want ... which seems to be businesses and organizations that can get them re-elected!! Maybe in my little town things will get better. I know, wishful thinking, but just MAYBE!!!
I have contractors coming this morning at 7:30 am ... pictures tomorrow!!
Total agreement about the ads. Here in Florida we had a choice for governor of a "fraudster" -vs- a "faker", the fraudster won. I just hate it when our only two choices are both bad choices. Anyway, glad your local area voted well...hope it helps things out. --Dave (GoingRvWay.com)
ReplyDeleteI hope it helps too Dave ... I'm not much of a political person, but having worked for the County for 25 years, I've seen where the money is wasted and think it's ridiculous!!! Hopefully the new Supervisor can get some things changed!!
DeleteNancy, the answer to your question in paragraph 1 is hidden in your comments. It is easy to find fault with the competition and seems to be rewarded in our society. Thus the negative ads. Most of the politicians do not have a plan and even if they did it is generally not realistic, or they make ridiculous statements like, "I have a plan to..., I have core values" what do those wasted statements mean? Generally nothing but people still vote for them. The politicians claim their lies are protected under the freedom of speech concept in the constitution. However, the freedom of speech doctrine has been reigned in by the legislators. It is illegal to lie to the police, it is illegal to lie to a government official, it is illegal to lie under oath and several other instances. Our option is to reign in these ads that lie (and most of them do, at least by twisting the truth) by imposing legal limits based on the good of the citizens. Few would argue that todays ads are for the good of our citizens. Penalties could include fines (think banks and brokers), forfeiture of office, a life time ban from politics (think Lance Armstrong) and a lifetime ban from participating in future political advertising (think insider trading) as well as jail time (think they deserve it). Any time there is a conflict of interests, politicians and people with too much money versus the general public, the courts find it necessary to weigh on the side of the greater good. To date the courts have been impotent in considering the interests of the public (think us) are not greater than the politicians and the people with too much money that believe they have the ability to control our lives. Wow where did that all come from. Nancy, look what you started. Jim
ReplyDeleteIt came from us being tired of getting walked on Jim. Sorry about that ... I really don't do much political stuff!! LOL You're certainly right about NO PLAN!! That's why I'm so happy the "right" Supervisor won!! At least he had something of a plan! I agree there should be penalties. Two of the candidates had billboard signs up ... a definite breaking of the size limitation rules ... but nothing was done, even though we complained about it. In the end, what won both positions was our door-to-door and Facebook-to-facebook campaign to get the truth out there in spite of the threat of lawsuits. Seems it worked ... for once!!!
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