After way too long, it’s finally time for me to pull up my blog, dust it off and rant. I’m outraged at the Florida primary election results. A virtually unknown billionaire candidate, Rick Scott, using all his own $50 million, has become the Republican Party’s nominee for Florida’s governor. This Johnny-come lately has saturated the media, especially TV ads, with aggressiveness and negativity making the Republican primary the most vicious in history. I’m sure he’s already gathering all the negative publicity he can find against his next opponent, Alex Sink. I hope she’s rich and strong enough to fight him off. But he was not alone using personal wealth to brutalize his opponents. Jeff Greene’s campaign failed because of considerably more personal baggage. Almost all of the candidates from all the parties have used negative ads in their campaigns. Is this now inevitable?
Is this then the future of politics in Florida and the nation – back-stabbing, personal attacks, nastiness, hate mail, litanies of negative allegations, and all financed by personal billions? Isn’t it time for election reform – equality and limits on campaign financing, a return to non-partisan politics and truth? What happened to the concept of campaigning in a positive manner for social and political change?
In Tom Lyons’ column in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, one man stated, “It’s just a matter of who you want to pick your pocket.” It wasn’t just the rain and a mid-term primary election that resulted in a very low voter turnout. Voters are sick of the lack of good honest candidates.
On a closing note, I’m very excited to soon be publishing my first book, tentatively titled Living on a Fault Line – a series of short stories about taking risks. Keep posted for more information.
Hello Jill! Yes, it is sad that politics comes down to who has the $$$ and how negative can they make the other guy look! Still, this Democrat is glad to see Republicans fairing well in the elections. Anything is better than what we have now!! What we really need is a new Party that is more in the center. No far rights and no far lefts! We need more people like Charlie Christ!
Congrats on getting so close to publishing your book!
So excited about the upcoming book. You must send out information about where we can pick up a copy as soon as it’s out (maybe I can get an autographed copy?). Thanks for the birthday wishes too. Love you and hope we can connect in October. Send me the dates when you can. xoxo
I couldn’t agree more, Jill. And I do believe the undercurrents are in action and this nation’s political system will be revolutionized. I just hope and pray it will be for good. I do think the two-party system is close to becoming extinct, and that’s a good thing. I hope the lobby system is on the way out too.
Congratulations on the book! I am so proud of you. I’ll be eagerly waiting its release. We must get together very soon.
Love you,
Regina/M