Well, another campaign season is here, marked with the rancor and divisiveness these things bring in this day and age as the old saw is brought to light: negative campaigning, properly done, frequently works.
And that is why we see so much of it, particularly when they've got nothing else.
In the best of all worlds, campaigns would be reduced to accurate information and discussing issues to enable the prospective voter to make an informed decision.
But as a country, we are hamstrung by the ignorant, the gullible, those who sell their vote in exchange for "stuff."
A nation of morons who place their self-interests ahead of the country. A selfish electorate and those who would manipulate them for their own ends... ends frequently in situations not in the best interests of this country.
"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
That phrase, uttered by a man who wouldn't even be allowed to be a democrat today, has long since been relegated to the dust bin of history by far too many Americans... who likely haven't heard of it before.
So, instead of any sacrifice on the part of government, they hand out $30,000 a year pay raises like samples.
Instead of taking care of disabled veterans, they give each other bonuses while those who served us wait. And wait. And wait. Until they don't need to wait because they're dead.
Those who pay the bills suffer. Those who receive the money stolen from the earners... demand more and more and more.
One side gratefully gives them more and more; after all, it's not their money and it costs them, personally, nothing... while those who get believe they deserve more and more and more.
What was it that drunk buffoon of a Vice President said? "Losing your job because of Obamacare is about freedom."
Well, that's two things he'll never have to worry about: a job, or ever having to use Obamacare.
The entire point of negative campaigning is to anger the voters into making an emotional decision. Frequently, those engaging in negative campaigns are lying, distorting, exaggerating... you name it.
Of course, our leftist state supreme court approved of lying in campaigns years ago, most noticeably when Sound Transit lied to get the light rail system passed in the King County area. Now, leftists generally engage in the practice as a matter of course. Local leftists are no exception.
The campaign under my microscope the most is the Pike/Winningham effort in my own 18th District.
I can almost sympathize with the democrats here on a strategic level. That is, neither of their candidates in the 18th stand a chance of coming close to winning. Anyone following politics locally knows this: In the general election, the GOP owns this district like the neo-communists own the 49th. It's kind of a ying and yang scenario.
But what's problematic in the 18th for the democrats... exclusive of being democrats in a time when, well, being a democrat isn't particularly helpful to challenge candidates anywhere... is that they offer nothing.
They offer no solutions.
They whine. They bitch. They moan. But, for just one example, they offer nothing in the way of solutions.
For instance, which democrat running here locally has offered up ANY solution to the cross-river transportation issues confronting us?
None. But they bitch like cut cats about the demise of the CRC, failing to care that those they would govern were almost uniformly opposed to that rip off. For the GOP candidates locally (for the most part), it's the gift that keeps on giving... because the left is almost genetically incapable of letting it go.
As a result, GOP incumbents around here (Save for Vick) generally are safe... but if Vick loses (And he's trying very hard to accomplish that) it won't be to a democrat, so the seat is safe for the GOP.
That said, neither one of the leftists running in the 18th offer any value to the voter.
Neither indicate where they would, realistically, do better. Rep. Pike's opponent is almost psychotic in her efforts to lie. She has no vision, no plan, no clue.
She's the very illustration of that old saw about lawyers:
"When the evidence is on your side, argue the evidence. When the law is on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, attack the other side's lawyer."
Bully Winningham has neither the evidence nor the law. So attacking the other side's lawyer is all she's got.
The local democrat organ continues to make the same mistake, over and over again, while somehow expecting a different outcome:
They insist on running Moeller-clones everywhere, even when a Moeller-clone is despised... like in the 18th.
It's comical. And it's pathetic. The classic insanity definition comes into play.
In short, vitriol is all they've got. As I've stated repeatedly, anger is usually the only way an incumbent loses.
So, if you've got nothing else, what do you do? You try to set up the artificial anger you need to get movement towards your positions.
But Bully's problem is that she is desperate. She radiates anger. She lies for no apparent reason about issues that are meaningless to the people of the 18th. (Bangalore, for example, was "a sleepy retirement town of 100,000 ten years ago?" Seriously?)
And that makes the question... the easy question... this: since she's lied about so much as a part of her campaign, what else would she lie about if, God Forbid, she got elected?
That said, Bully isn't a complete moron. Although one has to wonder: why are the unions endorsing someone who makes bank working for a company that has outsourced 50,000 jobs, always a big deal when a Republican does it, and she knows she's going to lose. So, with nothing TO lose, she goes negative.
But her lies, exaggerations and mischaracterizations are so over the top, that she's become a joke.
The voters here are faced with a choice: someone working towards solutions on a bi-partisan basis, or someone running on hate.
I'm sick of haters of all stripes. But I am monumentally sick of lying haters.
Odd, isn't it?
The local rag runs a stick through the entrails of GOP candidates all day, every day.
But democrat candidates who lie on video? Why, that doesn't even get a mention.
Purely in the name of evenhandidness, of course.
So, these two play rope-a-dope. To date, neither has taken positions, neither explains positions, and typically, neither bother to respond to constituents smart enough to oppose them.
And the lies, the hatred, the vitriol will keep on coming. Locally, they've got a facebook page devoted to it: C3G2. And that's what they bring to the table at all levels... far beyond the local microcosm.
The haters on both sides (And I freely admit there are haters on both sides.) will be the death of this country.