Is everyone else’s mailbox getting stuffed with as many campaign mailers as what I’ve received this year? At the beginning of the election season I was tossing some of the mailers in the garbage, but then I decided to start a collection. I now have a pile of over 40 mailers on the table, 14 of which are for a single candidate, and it’s not over yet.
Last week, I was about to comment that the incumbent Republican U.S. House candidate was sending me a mailer every day, but this week I have to update that as they’ve picked up the pace and I actually received two mailers the same day. I can’t imagine how much money it takes to so saturate a Congressional district with advertising. I’m sure it’s well beyond what ordinary citizens and mere voters can comprehend.
While counting up the mailers for the incumbent Congressional candidate, it occurred to me to look at the “paid for by” section. To my surprise, all but one was paid for by the state Republican Party. The other one was from the NRA.
I haven’t made a habit of looking at sponsor ID in the past, but I really can’t remember ever receiving campaign mailers paid for by the Republican Party. Continue reading “Will We “Vote for Principle” or Choose to “Just Win Baby!””
It seems to be a popular notion among the conservative right to think that hypocrisy is the exclusive domain of the liberal left. However, in recent years I have become increasingly aware of the presence of hypocrisy infecting the political right and I find it quite disturbing.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, depending whether you were receiving the “Republican 2017 Congressional District Census,” or the “Official 2017 Democratic Party Survey”; whether your party had just achieved victory, or suffered defeat; whether your party was in power, trying to defend the country against the forces of evil, or was out of power, trying to take the country back from the forces of evil. Whichever survey you received, one thing was certain: The country could only be saved if you “send us your money!”
A couple years ago, while reading an article about some internal strife in my state’s Republican Party, I was surprised to read that, “the state GOP has a policy of not endorsing one Republican over another.” I had noticed that this seemed to be the party’s practice, but didn’t know it was an actual policy.
“Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature … If the next centennial does not find us a great nation…it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.”
The Conservative Right seems to operate from a general assumption that things keep getting worse because liberals are in power and democrats win all the elections. However, I got curious and did a little research on the topic. I discovered that over the past 20 years, republicans have held 57% of the control of our federal government – 68% if you add in the Supreme Court – that’s a 68/32 split in favor of the republicans. Among the union states, the elephant party holds complete control (legislature and governor) of nearly half the states (23) – more than three times as many as the dreaded donkeys (7). It turns out that America is overwhelmingly republican-controlled.
Perspective 