Political Overload
Like most people who read this, I'm nearing my threshold of political partisan sniping that I can tolerate and I actively go out of my way to avoid it. Nobody seems to want to listen to what others say these days which only seems to make the other side shout louder. I wish I could say I was excited for the day after next Tuesday when everything is over but the crying, but with former President Trump still looming in the background eyeing another run, I'm not.
Iowa has on the ballot a gun rights amendment to our constitution saying “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.” While I do believe that the right to own SOME arms is a fundamental right, I don't think we need to specify that any laws need extra scrutiny, especially ones that have gone through the democratic process. To me, this just seems like a Republican ploy to make any debate on this impossible so despite being in the minority according to polls, I will vote against it.
Our governor is up for re-election. Back when Covid was still new and not well understood, she kept our businesses and schools open despite the CDC recommendations and nearly every state doing exactly the opposite. Though I think she may have been right doing so in hindsight, I didn't agree with her reasons of doing so at the time which was essentially kissing our former president's behind and showing she was a loyal soldier in his fight. I will not be voting for her for this reason, even if she was right and now Iowa leads the nation for the least amount of brain drain among our students and financial damage done to our businesses as a result of Covid and we still had lower death rates than about half the states that took far stricter measures. I'm not sure I can vote for the other main party candidate either so I will either vote third party or not at all in this race.
In Iowa, our Attorney General is an elected position so despite being a Republican majority state, our Attorney General is a ten term Democrat. He has done an acceptable job for me and I have no issues with him. I do however have issues with his opponent whose last name is Bird and whose campaign slogan has been that she is going to "give Biden and everyone else the Bird". For those unfamiliar with the phrase "giving the bird", it essentially means she plans to tell Biden and everyone else to go f^&* themselves. I can't in good conscious vote for someone who has run such a low brow campaign, no matter what she stands for.
Finally, Iowa's status as first in the nation voting to winnow the field of contenders for president from many down to two, is still in question, at least on the Democrat side. They have for my entire life ran this complicated caucus system of gathering majority support for a candidate and then went and complicated the process even further by requiring the party to keep track of all the intermediate vote totals instead of just the final vote totals. As a result they were weeks before they could report results and even then weren't certain on their accuracy for months which garnered them much egg in the face. The Republican caucus votes primary style though they do allow for a rally ahead of the vote for various surrogates to stump for their candidate and thus it gets a caucus label. It went as smooth as it ever did and the results were posted within an hour or two of polls closing. I've said it before that despite the drawbacks of getting so much money (and ads) poured into our state, it has a major advantage of getting front row access to every single candidate. But I will be the first to admit that perhaps allowing one state to go first isn't a fair model and perhaps we should rotate the burden and benefits.
Now until next Wednesday, I am going to lock myself in the basement with a book, taking time only to vote in person because I like to chat with my neighborhood poll workers whom are good friends.
I'm not voting this time. It just isn't worth the bother. And unless some reasonable person runs for president, I won't be voting in two years, either.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I vote some third party people and know going into it that my particular choice for office has zero chance of winning, it does help my sanity later knowing that I wasn't one of the people who voted the particular offensive person into office. Voting third party also allows me to "say my peace".
DeletePolitics is exhausting, so I feel your pain! I've already voted and it's nice to have it done. Based on what you've written here, I'd oppose that gun measure too. It's unnecessary, for one thing! In races where I don't like either candidate I generally go for the lesser of two evils. I very, very rarely skip a race entirely.
ReplyDeleteI stopped voting for the lesser of two evils because sometimes those people have turned out more "evil" than I thought and I abhorred the thought of helping to get them elected. I also stopped and vote third party more often in those cases also as a protest against our two party system.
DeleteI've been debating in my mind all morning whether to have a political post or not. You know me... I normally try to stay under the radar on contentious topics, but I saw something on the national news last night that piqued my curiosity about voters in general.
ReplyDeleteI have been avoiding political posts mostly because my views upset both sides sometimes. This was sort of a compromise by commenting are our state politics which not very many of my readers care about.
DeleteI am SO sick of the campaign ads, especially those filled with untruths or half-truths. I've already voted but am nervous about the results which are far-reaching, not just for my state. I would vote against the gun measure too.
ReplyDeleteAren’t those with untruths or half-truths all of them?
DeleteOur elections are short and while not sweet, so far they are nothing like yours, perhaps due to some sort of spending limits etc although I am not now up on the parameters. I can't agree that your governor was right in hindsight when she was ignoring the best knowledge at the time. IMO you do what is right according to best thoughts. They may prove to be right or wrong, but it's not up to you to decide on a political whim. Am I ranting? Heck! I'm not even American. But then again, the whole world is affected by America.
ReplyDeleteI think the Supreme Court abolishing spending limits was terrible and I have been hoping for legislation re-establishing them. They can say what they are for in a few short ads instead of repeating slams against their opponent every other ad. It would be every ad if their opponent was filling up every other slot with more of the same.
DeleteI don't watch the news and I stopped subscribing to newspapers. When I turn in my ballot I only vote for the ones that I really want and leave the rest blank. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
ReplyDeleteIgnorance can definitely be blissful. I do watch the evening news to stay informed but always record it so I don't have to watch the political ad commercials in-between. I like the short segments that don't do a lot of opining so if I want to know more, I can seek other sources.
DeleteI've already voted too. I really feel it's important to pick the person you think is best or if not that at least the person who is not the worst. We MUST do our best to preserve our democracy even though some of these ads are nuts. Actually, the ads we have in Hawaii are OK. There was someone who went with a negative commercial in Hawaii and he lost badly. People in Hawaii tend to feel a repugnance for nastiness. Granted, we have a smaller segment of the new population who are not quite into the aloha spirit.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I'm naïve but I haven't been worried about our democratic system being threatened, especially when you compare it to other "democratically" elected people like Putin and Maduro. I still trust the election process and I think if Trump wasn't in the picture, most others would too. Where people see masses of people believing the election was fake, I see people who are unwilling to go against Trump and so say what he wants to hear to secure their political futures but know in their hearts that he lost fair and square. Still, I don't think it is something to take lightly either and I hope if Trump runs again, everyone deeply thinks about if he best represents the Republican party before voting him to be their candidate again.
DeleteI agree with you 100%
DeleteI, too, try to stay away from politics on my blog -- altho' I occasionally address social issues. Anyway, I voted by mail last week (mostly Dem. but one Rep. and one Third party, if you want to know) so I can ignore all the political ads without feeling guilty that I'm not doing my part as a citizen. Like you, I find them intolerable. They are so negative and distorted. For example, our moderate Republican congressperson is charged and convicted by his opponent as anti-choice and anti-woman ... because he supports Roe v. Wade -- legal up until viability -- but not late-term abortions. And don't get me started on our two senate candidates. They sound like a couple of kids cursing and teasing each other on the playground. My neighbor has a political sign on his front yard: "Anyone Who's Sane!"
ReplyDeleteI love the political theater and what makes people believe the things they do. Unfortunately, when I question people about why they believe something, many feel threatened and push me into the far opposing camp from theirs. When I point out hypocrisies on both sides, I get pushed further left or right than I am. I used to vote more moderate Democrat when I was younger but as the party swung towards more liberal candidates, I have drifted a bit to the right. I haven't been offended by President Biden though I think he has been a little weak in foreign policies. I'm glad to see he has rejoined our nation back to the world stage which is a step in the right direction. I was kind of fond of moderate John McCain and thought he would have made a fine president if he hadn't errored on his choice for Vice President. But I don't consider myself Republican because like the Democrats, the Republicans have swung way to far to the right for my liking. I participate in their caucus in my state because there are a lot of independents and moderates similar to my views and I feel it is my best chance to make a difference. But I shudder when people try to label me as one or the other party.
DeleteI was looking forward to the day after the election as well because I am also sick of the political sniping but there will be cries of tampering and fraud if results don't go a certain way so who knows when this election cycle will end.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right but I hope you aren't. I hope that those who lose are more intelligent than Trump, a low bar to meet, and realize that even if there were discrepancies, they weren't enough to change the overall result.
DeleteI will be glad when the elections are over, even though we only have elections for our representatives this year. Thankfully I can vote against my representative (he's not the sharpest tool in the shed and never answered my letters demanding that January 6 be investigated and voted against such investigations, but he'll be the first to investigate Hunter Biden). Sadly, I expect he'll easily win.
ReplyDeleteIt is looking more and more to me anyway, like the Republicans may eke out a majority in both houses. I'm not looking forward to a Biden (Hunter or Joseph) investigation for the next two years. I'm already tired of the Trump/Jan 6th investigations. I'm more than ready to just list the lesson's learned, how we can prevent them from happening again and move on, no matter the degree of guilt.
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