Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Slinging mud and other campaign b.s.


As the primary elections draw near, the politicians and their campaigners are ramping up the rhetoric. They’re going into attack mode, now. The gloves are off and the political candidates are resorting to the typical dirty tricks that have always been part of the election process.


Name-calling is a tactic that always seems to work. Candidate A calls candidate B an inexperienced newcomer. Candidate B retaliates by calling candidate A a career politician. Career politician?

Stop and think about it for a minute before you automatically assume that this intended slur carries any weight. What, exactly, is a career politician? Isn’t a career politician someone who was elected to office by the will of the majority of voters and remains in office at the will of the majority of voters? The majority of voters can end a career politician’s career simply by voting the crook out of office.

What does candidate B really hope to gain by calling candidate A a career politician? Isn’t he really hoping to defeat candidate A so that he, himself, can become a career politician?

Career politicians are the ones that get elected, and reelected. All the rest are inexperienced newcomers, a.k.a. also-rans.