Week of October 14 - Had Enough?

[Dazzler]

Had Enough?  What is She Thinking?

Battlecrys or campaign slogans? 


Personally I have had enough.  I've had enough of the offensive, twisted personal attacks on nearly every candidate running for office in Illinois.  Something is very, very wrong with the political system in Illinois.  Candidates no longer design a campaign plan and schlep around the state informing potential voters of their long-term plans.  Instead they hire big-bucks publicity agencies to dig the dirt on their opponents and create multi-million dollar advertisements and slam-dunk attacks. They stop just inches short of slander. 

I've yet to see a campaign commercial that doesn't include barbs about the opposition.  Judging from the current onslaught of 30-second television spots and an overflowing mailbox of printed political materials I've concluded there are no viable candidates for election in Illinois.  There's something grossly inept, corrupt, deceitful, scandalous, subversive or mentally-challenged about every candidate running for office in our State...according to their challengers. 

As a new, young voter, many years ago, I couldn't wait to get my voter's registration card and cast my first ballot for an elected official.  It was exciting.  I researched the candidates...I weighed the platforms and the idealogical beliefs of each party...was I a conservative Republican like my parents?  Did I lean more toward the Democratic, more liberal point of view?  Was I going to be a free-thinker and vote for some obscure third Party that didn't have a snowball's chance...?   I listened to the candidates, I read their proposals and determined which candidates shared the same beliefs and hopes as I did.  I became liberated...I split my ballots...I brought a cheat sheet to the voting booth...I soon learned to flip the switches and punch the appropriate holes...and I left with a feeling of power and satisfaction.

I was a firm believer that if I didn't vote I had no right to criticize the outcome!!  As I was newly promoted to  'political reporter'  I felt it my civic duty to be informed...to study my choices...listen to the candidates...and pick the best.

Geesh...was I naive!!!  This is Illinois!!!  This is the Land of Mediocrity!!  The Land of Stuffed Shoeboxes!!  No longer do I search for the best of the best....I'm forced to choose the best of the worst candidates.  My decisions are currently based on the likelihood of indictments, graft, corruption...a whole host of bottom-feeders...if I believe campaign literature.

I recently voiced my opinion that I've considered voting for Democrat Tammy Duckworth, Iraq-based helicopter pilot who lost her legs during combat.  She's running for representative in DuPage County.  I was met with the response (from someone whose opinion I don't value anyway) - 'but she's a Mexican'....no, she's an American that bravely served our country.  According to her opponent, Peter Roskam, she only wants to open our borders and let millions of illegal 'aliens'...I love that word - like little green men are invading the US...cross our borders, take jobs from Americans and collect Social Security.  Oh Please!!  Get a grip Peter.  Tell me what you've done for my country.

Gubanatorial candidate Judy Barr Topinka's political camp shouts "Had Enough?" via TV bits - countered by Gov. Rod Blagojevich's response..."What is she thinking?"  I'm thinking I'd like to throw something at the television....

Listen up Candidates....tell me what you're going to do for this State...for me, for my family, how you'll be different than your predecessors...how you'll change this State of Corruption.  Tell me you won't be the next crook that's headed for a federal pen because a couple hundred thousand a year isn't good enough for you....tell me you won't squander my tax dollars and jeopardize my grandchildren's educations...tell me your friends and family aren't going to party it up on my money....tell me something about yourself...instead of what skeletons you perceive in your opponent's closet...

Once again, I'll go to the polls in a few weeks....no excitement left in me...no cheat sheet...no false sense of having any power of electing a revered political candidate....I might as well just throw some darts at that ballot and let them fall where they may....Yes, I've had enough....No, I don't know what I'm thinking any more...I just thank my Higher Power (it's politcally incorrect to use the word God) that these damned commercials will be over soon....and disappointed with my choices, I'm sure. 

My one small satisfaction...I still haven't lost my right to criticize...unless I missed that piece amid all the clutter in my mailbox...




 

[EMERALD]

Vote Dazzler for Governor!!   I mean it Daz, I think you'd give em a run for their money.  Politics in your country is certainly run a lot differently than here in the UK.  Although, I do think whereever power is on the plate, there will always be dishonest polititians.   >>

[Jims]

Thank you for speaking your mind and saying what's been on MY mind lately! It's exactly the same in Ohio. I keep hoping I'll suddenly win a lottery so I can take out a full page ad in all the newspapers in the state and tell the candidates that I have tuned out their mega-expensive, wasteful, meaningless attack ads. All the issues confronting Americans in every state, and we're being bombarded with he said/she said bs. I've had it.

I used to admire at least some of our politicians. Everett Dirksen was a favorite. Robert Michel. Nowadays, I think anyone who runs for office is a fool to put themselves and their families through the kind of scrutiny and mud-slinging that American politics has been reduced to. I love Barack Obama, but I almost hate to think about him running for President and having to go through a hateful campaign where the other side twists the truth, and spends their time and money trying to find any little sensational grain of scandal they can.

[Amy]

Right On Dazzler.    ..)

Funny cause when I told my husband I was gonna
vote for her, he told me the same thing. I was so shocked,
I didn't even know how to answer him. (opposites attract)    :-D



Now I have some ammo for him.       .>>

[dancer]

We have a lot of mud slinging going on in Minnesota also.  The opponent of Patty Wetterling is even attacking her.  She is a person whose son was grabbed off his bicycle in St. Joseph Mn and was never seen again.  She has been a tireless supporter of missing children. Most of us put her way up on a pedestel.  I also have great faith in Amy Klobuchar who is running for US Senate.  She has been the attorney general and I think she is excellent.  We don't have as much corruption in Mn as you do in IL.

[Jims]

I'VE HAD 13 CALLS TODAY ASKING FOR MY VOTE. AND THERE'S STILL 5-1/2 HOURS OF CALLING TIME LEFT IN THE DAY.

I am politically active, but they're driving me crazy this year. Now every time the phone rings and I see "Unknown Caller, Unknown Number" on the caller ID, I just pick up the phone and immediately hang up. And what's worse, they're all recorded messages. AAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!

STOP IT AND GO AWAY BEFORE I DECIDE TO NOT VOTE FOR ANY OF YOU AND JUST WRITE IN BARACK OBAMA FOR EVERY RACE.!

(think he'd move to Ohio?)

[Dazzler]

He might have to when the Illinois press gets through attempting to link him to Blago's indicted fundraiser, Tony Rezko...claiming they bought adjacent pieces of property one day apart from each other....????

I've read a few reports that Ohio will be a crucial key to the Dems winning the House back this year....and the Democratic/Republican National Committees have dumped tons of money into Ohio...what's left anyway after all the $$$$ they've pumped into Illinois....