Slimy politics
I have some exposure to all of the stuff that happens behind the scenes in politics and it continues to amaze me to what levels political groups will go to.
And today I saw another example of this.
See the key to politics is peer pressure/influence. They’ve done study after study that shows people vote not on a politicians record but based on what the voter’s peers say about him/her. What this means is that they key to winning elections is making it seem like the regular joes out there that we know support the right guy.
And of course they’re using every tool they can to make it seem this way. The Internet is on the bleeding edge of this. See, a single person can seem like 200 people online. So when I read the article about whether my congressman is a fraud my political manipulation censor started going off when I read the reader comments on the article.
In my opinion, this is clearly a case where two or three political operatives for the democratic candidate are purposefully posting tons of comments under multiple names to make it seem like the public is ready to fry the incumbant. The comments are just WAY too imbalanced to be anything else. Heck, even the “is this comment helpful” numbers are way out of what with each of the comments slamming the incumbant having near perfect “approval” numbers.
To be clear, I’m undecided whether Doolittle will get my vote. I’m suspicious that he has indeed been a tool of business interests without any political checking. However, it’s ridiculous that his opponent will go around acting like the general public is in their corner. Nice to see that politics has delved to this low level.
September 30th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
how about the politics of the city of berkeley, why no story on that ken?
September 30th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
Well, I don’t live in Berkeley these days, so I don’t cover them very carefully. Plus, from what little I know, it’s so much of a joke it’s not worth covering.
October 3rd, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Ken, The abortion clinic escorts at Planned Parenthood here in the Sacramento area have “Charlie Brown for Congress”, “Dump Doolittle” and “Protect Choice- Vote no on 85″ bumper stickers on their cars and campaign pins on their shirts. Therefore, I would suggest a careful research of the two candidates’ position on critical life issues before November 7th. Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life has a very good commentary on the Catholic responsibility to vote at Voting with a Clear Conscience
October 3rd, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Hi Wynette! I’m glad to see you’re still visiting. Thanks for putting up with my football obsession this time of year.
Yes, there is no way I’ll be voting for Charlie Brown for exactly the reasons you mention. What I am unsure of is whether Doolittle will get my vote. I haven’t learned enough about the business interests conflicts to know whether I’ll be voting for a third party.
I encourage all to visit the Priests for Life website that Wynette shared here.
October 4th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
I fully understand the temptation to find the “all-perfect” third-party candidate to vote for, particularly after being disgusted by the recent headlines of political immorality, but the simple botton-line is a vote for anyone other than Doolittle will result in a Democratic win, which would be very damaging to critical life issues.
Father Pavone addresses the quandry of trying to decide between too less-than-desirable candidates and being tempted to vote for a third-party, “Of course, it is possible to elect almost anyone if the necessary work is done within the necessary time. The point is that if there’s a relatively unknown but excellent candidate, the time to begin building up support for that person’s candidacy is several years before the election, not several months. What you have to ask as Election Day draws near is whether your vote is needed to keep the worse candidate out of office.”
I’m not in Congressman Doolittle’s district, but I have read about the business allegations made against him and his wife, which are certainly a moral concern. However, with just a few weeks until November 7th, I encourage you to consider voting for him in order to keep the “worst candidate out of office…”