Poltical Ads

This year the political ads have been the biggest garbage I have seen.

I have yet to find a single ad where a candidate says anything of a positive nature. By positive, I mean something he/she would try to do or establish with the goal of fixing society's ills and making this world a better place. All I see are slams at an opponent, generally with fictitious stories or out-of-context comments or just general blather.  Dozens of ads about "gutting Medicare" that demonstrate a willingness to not communicate the truth in order to help slam an opponent.

If a candidate needs to lie to try to gain votes, they've lost mine.  I am no great fan of those in office, but I am no great fan of their opponents, either. Maybe someday someone will run somewhere in a manner I can commend on a platform I can support.

I am still waiting for a candidate for any office to acknowledge that their village, town, county, state, country all go together and are part of the big wide world and cannot be treated as disjoint. If we are to thrive in this world, we have to get our act together as a country, and fast.

When you vote this year, I suggest you strongly ask yourself how your voting choices, taken as a group, will help enable us to live and grow in the world as a whole.

As a matter of fact, before you vote this year, at least read Friedman's and Mandelbaum's That Used to be Us.  Although I for one don't agree with everything they are after, I strongly agree with the way they place everything in a global context.

The very first question you should ask yourself is this: will my candidate selections work together in a positive way? If you find that you select your choices because of single issues and without considering the overall context, then you are part of our polarizing politics, and have nobody to blame as we continue our downward spiral.  Remember: two people rowing in opposite directions will not move a rowboat no matter how strong they are. Yet, one will claim success because the current for a time will help move the boat in his/her direction.