So much to do...so little time

Sorry I haven't gotten any stuff up the last few days. I've been really busy with youth sports, weekend projects, car shopping, work and trying to figure out which pathetic, worthless local political candidates deserve my support least...so I can go vote for their opponents.

I tell you, with all the negative campaigning from both sides, the incessant, annoying evening phone calls from candidates' offices, and the yard signs which never get taken down (I've even got one in my yard)...I've come to the sad conclusion that, with a few exceptions, there's not a nickel's worth of difference between any two candidates. They all accuse each other of being criminals, of being in the pockets of special interests, of being easy on crime, drugs, and illegal immigration...blah, blah, blah. It's like the candidates look at the current hot-button issues and then run out and accuse their opponent of being on the wrong side...as a campaign strategy. It's very disillusioning.

When you think about it, it's infuriating to realize that the candidates expect to get elected by exploiting the fact that most citizens are simple-minded, sound-bite voters who react blindly, rather than skeptically, to the slightest hint of something negative about one candidate or the other. What's even more infuriating it that's it's absolutely true about most voters. People are basically simpletons who hear an accusation about a guy and think that if that other guy said it, it must be true. And then go out and vote based on that one accusation alone.

Then consider what low voter turn out there generally is in local elections, and you realize that it's the single-issue, sound-bite voters who are electing our officials...no wonder Montgomery is awash in corruption and votes-for-money. Insincere campaigning gets insincere politicians elected.

I don't know which is worse...the gullible voter or the candidate who takes advantage of that gullibility to seize political power.

In any event, I plan to get out there at some point today and do my civic duty. That way I am free to criticize the guys in office when they mess up. You should too.

Regards, Ed