Putting Things Into Perspective

This post has absolutely NOTHING to do with home business. I was just sitting and musing, thinking about how out of control politics has gotten in this country. It's an election year and all of a sudden politicians are bending over backwards to tell us just how much they care about us, their constituents. It can be absolutely nauseating at times. Emotions get whipped up into a frenzy, lines are drawn, die is cast, sides are chosen and families are split in two. In another couple of months things will die down, life will return to normal, families will mend fences and we will wait another four years for the dance to begin again. Two years if you count the non presidential year congressional and senatorial elections. Anyway, here are the thoughts I was musing over.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of all the political rhetoric, all the finger pointing, right to left, left to right, over and over and over again. The news is full of it, political ads are full of it, even the debates are full of it. Today the phone rang and when I answered, this pre-recorded message began to play bashing a particular candidate for the NC Senate. Let me tell you, I'M SICK OF IT! I believe there are others of you who are sick of it as well. How can we know what a candidate stands for or against when all they do is bash the other guy?

When one candidate tells you that their opponent voted for or against this bill or that bill, they don't tell you that the bill in question was loaded with riders that their opponent, and probably even they themselves could not support but that would pass along with the bill if it passed, so naturally they had to vote against it. When one candidate quotes another on a given issue, they almost always do so out of context, painting their opponent's comments in an unfavorable light. It's tactics like this that just make me want to never hear another one of them speak again!

So, how can we put things into proper perspective? Here are a few of my ideas. I realize that none of these ideas will ever be put into practice. Heavens no! Why, they are just too practical. They make too much sense. That would really throw a monkey wrench into our political process, now, wouldn't it?

I would like to see a debate where the rules prohibited one candidate from bashing the other. When a question is asked, all the candidate can do is say what he or she believes, what he or she would do to solve the problem, meet the concern, whatever the issue, without pointing out what their opponent has done, has not done, would not do, etc. They would actually have to answer the question.

I would like to see campaign advertisement reform that would limit or even prohibit name calling, finger pointing, opponent bashing, all of it. Only ads that present a candidates beliefs, plans, ideas would be allowed in this new reform. What we need to know is what they will do to solve the problems that face us as a nation, not what their opponent has failed to do.

I would like to see, on network television, comparisons of the candidates' actual voting records. No fluff, no hype, just how they voted on the important issues. Along with that, I would like to hear the candidates actually state what they believe to be the important issues and what they would do about them if elected.

If we could know what a candidate stands for without hearing what the other guy doesn't stand for, then we as responsible citizens would have a real basis upon which to decide who we want representing us in government. The emphasis is on REPRESENTING US, not special interests or party politics. That would definitely put things into perspective and we might actually achieve government "of the people, by the people and for the people."