The Cynic, with an uppercase “C,” allegedly carried a lantern looking for an honest man.
If he roamed the Several States today, he would be hard pressed to find such a person.
IT’S AN ELECTION YEAR in the United States.
Politicians and political want-to-be’s seem to be playing fast and loose with the truth.
Sometimes what comes out of their managers’ mouths is ALMOST the truth, but almost never is it “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
Here in south Florida several gubernatorial candidates are claiming they “took on” the nation’s president (with the suggestion that they prevailed). How a city mayor and a billionaire can claim they “took on Trump” and will prevent the federal government from doing that it has been doing since 1865 – trampling states’ rights – is beyond my ken.
The two candidates have spent untold thousands of dollars – their own or their supporters? – attacking each other.
A third candidate has stayed clear of the fray and, as the primary election nears, touts her loyalty to Obama and her relationship to a former Florida governor and senator. A fourth candidate is almost invisible in south Florida.
All are well inside the liberal camp and they are playing to the largely liberal south Florida population. Go north to central Florida and the panhandle where the people are typically more conservative and the ads appear less often.
The other party’s candidates seems a little more “civilized.” Since both align with conservatives, their advertisements are few and far between in south Florida.
The National Rifle Association – NRA – seems a prime target for the liberals. The suggestion is that because of the NRA’s interpretation of the Constitutions Second Amendment, mass shootings take place.
Never mind that in no case has the shooter any connection to the NRA – not even membership.
- I have no problem with banning fully automatic weapons and weapons that can easily be converted to fully automatic, and I have no problem with limiting magazines to 10 cartridges. Show me a “hunter” who needs a 30-round magazine and I’ll show you a person who never should get a hunting license.
Of course anything and everything “Trump” is attacked by the liberals.
One senatorial candidate knocks his opponent for allegedly failing to pay taxes and provide campaign workers with health insurance.
Are the campaign workers contractors – “1099” workers? 1099s are responsible for their own taxes and health care. Been there, done that.
Are the campaign workers volunteers? Volunteers, by definition2 donate their time for no financial or social gain "to benefit another person, group or organization." Other than a pat on the back and a victory or pity party at the end of the campaign, volunteers receive nothing of consequence; neither financial compensation nor benefits (e.g., health coverage).
- I do not know if the candidate’s campaign workers are consultants or volunteers or if the candidate owes Social Security and Medicare benefits, or even if the candidate knows the status of the campaign workers. The candidate has yet to respond to the challenger’s advertisement. Full disclosure never has been part of politics in the U.S.
A few of the candidates tell me, in their few non-attack advertisements, what they “will” – not “hope” to accomplish if elected.
Several promise to raise teacher salaries, one “by $10,000 or more.”
They also promise health care for all.
None tell voters HOW this largess will be funded.
Increase taxes, of course. Perhaps levy a state income tax as well. But on this the candidates remain as silent as Uncle Remus’ Tar Baby.3, 4
At least one “will” raise the minimum wage to $15/hour which simply means that
- (a) prices will rise and
(b) workers will be laid off.
To their credit, the two conservative candidates for governor have, so far in south Florida, refrained from attack ads; indeed, they have been almost “out of sight and out of mind” in this part of the state. (The media, heavily liberal, has one more reason to slam conservatives; they aren’t contributing what they could to the media’s coffers.)
The primaries soon will be history and we can look forward, alas, to the avalanche of advertisements for the general election.
Thanksgiving can’t come soon enough.
Sources
1. https://www.iep.utm.edu/diogsino/ ; http://tinyurl.com/a2kps
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteering
3. http://tinyurl.com/y9mlrcuz
4. https://www.uncleremus.com/stories.html
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
BCPLANNER: Comments on Politicians
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