"All politics is local" ?

It might be a lot easier to defend this statement:

"All politics gets pretty crappy, pretty soon, pretty much all the time, pretty much everywhere."

Case in point: the local race for mayor in my town.

One party hasn't even bothered to put up a candidate, so the two front-runners in the other party are pretty much going to decide the ultimate election outcome in a couple weeks, when they submit themselves to voters in the May primary.

The campaigning has been pretty much the usual stuff so far, walking the neighborhoods, appearances at Little League games, kaffeeklatsch-type stuff with groups and organizations, and, oh yeah, some mud being slung—"you falsely claimed support from our policemen" and "you're too young for the job, when you were a kid you did things that kids do," you know the kind of stuff…and the campaign news coverage has been shallow, hum-drum....

Last night the two candidates met for the first of three "debates." My local Patch.com reporter devotes his entire report to detailed recitation of the "heated exchange" between the two gents about, you guessed it, the "smear tactics" and "dirty politics" that each claims the other guy started first, omigaw! pretty much the same old tired crap that politicians love to shout about, while they're in the act of doing it themselves….

There isn't one word in the published news report about any of the substantial discussion, or---it's possible, you know!—about any of  the "debate" issues that might have been sharply illuminated and deeply explored during the televised event….

In other words, the event featured a lot of pretty much the same old crap, and the news coverage was pretty much the same old crap.

I deliberately didn't mention candidate names or party affiliations here, because of course it really doesn't matter, does it? It's the same story everywhere. Now don't get me wrong -- I'm going to vote for one of them because he says he thinks much the way I think, and I hope he may do a good job.

But, the disheartening bottom line is: why do we continue to tolerate the same old campaign crap?

And the great mystery: why do we keep re-electing so many self-serving pols who aren't really interested in seriously, carefully, intelligently doing the people's business?

Stop voting for incumbents

Why is re-electing HIM/HER good for YOU?