A recent column by Hayden Hollingsworth probably reflected the feelings of a vast majority of readers, voters, ordinary citizens and especially politicians. The words were, “Finally, It’s All Over.’ Making sure everyone understood what is all over, the first words in the column are, “The election season, that is.”
According to various reports about 47% of the population cheered the winner while about 46% contended that the loser should have won. The remaining 7 % are totally indifferent and watching the indolent Simpsons, NASCAR crashing or football assault. When asked about the election outcome, many folks respond with, “well, I didn’t think we had much to choose from” or “gosh, I didn’ like neither of ‘em.”
Politics has become a swamp of lies, misdirected negatives, tales of personal destruction all in the sludge of rhetorical speeches and too many contributions leading to too much spending. In the end, on the day after the polls close, we realize that we still don’t know what the winning politicians stand for but we recall many of the faults that were pinned on the losers. On balance there are promises without possibility and forecasts without facts.
In the Virginia Governor’s tourney, Robert Sarvis got about 7% of the vote in a campaign seeking cash and looking for a cause. It has been said that Cuccinelli could have won had the RNC given him more support. The victor won partly because he ‘won’ the phantom ‘war on women’ as one of the cornerstones of his campaign. What better support could he elicit to help win the heated battle in the war on women than North America’s most celebrated womanizer and former President, William Jefferson Clinton? Celebrating the Clinton visitation day, the local daily featured headlines and a big front-page photo of grinning former President. Cuccinelli and his supporter Rand Paul had a smaller photo and a diminished headline below.
Now, Mr. McAuliffe will have to figure out how to run the state government, something foreign to him. His business failures don’t add much public confidence but he will probably take pages from the Obama campaign and govern the folks here in Virginia through continued campaigning based on his adventures as a political fundraiser. Mr. McAuliffe also must double-talk his way out of his promise to keep coal miners employed and yet prolong his ‘war on coal’ that he has declared in his many speeches.
Perhaps the most macabre situation occurred during the Virginia Governor’s mud-slinging marathon. A 2010 law in Washington D.C. prohibits the killing of wild animals including rats. Professional exterminators are required to capture unwanted animals, find the entire family and relocate them instead of killing them. Concerned that some of these rat families could be relocated across the Potomac to Virginia, candidate and present Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli commented that ‘We are treating rats better than immigrants.” Some morbid mind in the McAuliffe campaign staff ginned up the notion that Cuccinelli killed rats, hated animals and immigrants and Hispanics in the area reacted with great indignation, as planned.
The result is that we have a total Gotcha Governor, a Prejudicial President and a Constant Conflict Congress. Any political bodies such as Congress or City Councils that set their own conditions of employment, including salaries, expenses and benefits are always subject to existentialistic corruption. When politicians receive the recognition of being elected to public office, they immediately take on the aura of being iconic, authoritative and commanding of special respect. Colleagues name government buildings after other politicians turned superior government officials hoping that they will likewise get their own names emboldened in marble. There are many rewards for those politicians who took our money, spent our money and kept getting re-elected almost to the point of posthumously.
This brings up a critical point. Political candidates that change their speech to fit each obsequious audience with rapid lip movements and short memories probably don’t make the best trustees for our taxes and our well-being.
– Dick Baynton
