One week before an election there is a ton of wrong speech floating around. I don't watch TV, so that buffers me, and when I get the flyers in the mail they go straight into the trash. I like to hear from friends about candidates in local elections, and I read some of what is available, but not from the candidates, but from League of Women Voters and assessments that are more detached or show both sides' arguments.
I try to assume everyone's intention is good. I'm not out to see behind a facade. In their language and that of their advocates, I'm looking for common sense. Sounds easy, but it's as old fashioned as depression glassware. So if it's a local candidate talking about international or national issues, I'm repelled. I mean, I just want better lighting and safe streets and the usual. I don't need someone to take a stance about free trade or immigration reform, unless he/she is in a position to affect that problem.
Are they demonizing the other side? I like to see them talking about themselves and their ideas, not putting the focus on the adversary. That is usually a smoke screen.
And I'm a bit blaise, because the structure they are attempting to insert themselves into is so much stronger and more rigid than they think. What's likely to be changed is them, not the government they represent. Yet, I'm hopeful every election, because I've seen nobodies rise up and discover their greatness, even take stands against the majority of their party or backers. I had a political science professor long ago who said in England they call the subject "the art of politics", not science. He saw it as a grand drama of emotions and feelings and hopes and dreams. Not rational, not even close, but very reliably human.
I watch for the blaming and side stepping and overblown rhetoric. And then I vote for the other guy.
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