Political Primaries 2010 : Who Is Your Ideal Candidate?
It’s that time again, folks : the political primaries will be coming to you on June 1, 2010. Sadly, we were long ago forced to abandon the idea of simply trusting our politicians, because they often tell us only what they think we want to hear. We have the ultimate responsibility of choosing the candidate we deem to be the most aligned with our personal ideals and values… but based on nothing more than his/her strategically tailored, target-audience-seeking messages. In the great state of Alabama, the hopefuls think that the message we want to hear is one that speaks largely of guns, glory, and gratuitous amounts of nearly-racist sentiment… or so it would seem, judging by some of the intricately wrought political ads seen on the airwaves of late.
Here’s an ad from Tim James, a Republican frontrunner. Apparently, his idea of what a large majority of Alabamians will want is discrimination against anyone who doesn’t speak English as their first language. He claims that not giving driver’s license exams in multiple languages will save the state significant amounts of money. Take a look :
The fact of the matter is that giving driver’s license exams in Farsi, Spanish, or even American Sign Language costs the exact same amount as giving the exams in English. When you pay to take the exam, the electronic kiosk you use is the same no matter which language you speak. The system for the exams was funded by a federal grant, has been in use for years, and came with the translating software pre-installed. (A tip of the hat to leftinalabama.com for putting this information out there.)
It is not immediately obvious what is more disheartening : the fact that people will inevitably listen to this ridiculous idea in blissful ignorance and vote for this man because he claims to speak in the name of “common sense”, or the fact that we still have people in the state of Alabama who genuinely believe this nonsense… because let’s face it, without that demographic, Tim James would not make an ad of this sort. Here’s the true “common sense” : People who regularly speak a language more than they speak English are not sub-par citizens. Exams should be given in languages other than English in order to better serve people whose first language is not English.
Here’s another ad, this time from conservative Bradley Byrne. Not once in this ad does the man address anything that is relevant in politics.
No offense to the religious fundies out there, but the idea that a candidate knows he is “a creature of a creator” does not say much in terms of what he is going to do for our state. It does not, in fact, bode well at all, especially when that line of thinking has notoriously been linked with anti-gay and other hateful sentiment that will inevitably condemn certain citizens of our state to an inescapably sub-par demographic.
The fact of the matter is that religion has no place in politics. It seems that no politician can make his or her way into office without giving some sort of flowery adage to the idea that they are receiving their ideas in a direct line from “God”. We need candidate who doesn’t run his campaign on the ideas of gun ownership and church. There are bigger issues at hand.
Equally unfortunate is the fact that, in the current state of politics, the best choice must sometimes be determined not by the greater accumulation of a politician’s relative merits, but in the lesser accumulation of his or her relative evils. The politicians cleverly tailor their ads to that idea as well, attacking each other rather than actually stating what they intend to do for the good of the state and its citizens. The members of both major political parties become aggressive towards each other rather than staying above the fray and focusing that aggression on the issues, which is what we need as a state. Here’s an attack ad put out by Democratic candidate Artur Davis against his opponent Ron Sparks :
This is singularly ridiculous. Ron Sparks has also put out his own ads counterattacking Artur Davis. Instead of saving the thousands of dollars they spend on these attack ad campaigns and putting that money back into programs which will directly benefit the state, these politicians would rather get involved in televised “he-said, she-said” wars to try to paint their opponents black. The cute thing is, once the primaries are over, one of the attack dogs will immediately change his tune and throw his full support behind the chosen candidate of his party… nevermind anything he said in his attack ads about misappropriation of funds. Apparently, all of that goes away once the party lines are established. Post-primary elections, all that will matter to anyone is whether we have a “conservative” or a “liberal” in office.
What, then, does it all boil down to? It appears that in these times, it’s all about ignorance and showmanship. Instead of asking us what we want, they tell us what they think we want to hear and never allow us (the general citizenry) to get a word in edgewise. Both political parties are notorious for their power-hungry, prideful, prejudiced and pigheaded ways.
So tell us… what qualities would YOUR ideal candidate for governor have?
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PS : For a quick-and-easy list of candidates, see the al.com statewide election index.
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