Ohio Deserves Better From Candidates

It is time we held political campaigns to principles consistent with our interests as the voting public. That is what we should expect of ourselves, but

Now, we know better. Through tactics xeroxed out of Karl Rove’s playbook, we have reminded ourselves that real politics is played upon the fears, prejudices, and the latent bigotry that shadows our past and threatens to condemn our future. On March 4, 2008, far too many Ohio votes were based on a politic of fear at 3 am; jobs lost through NAFTA and the fiction of executive leadership. We somehow mistake the direction of our fears and faults as the direction of leadership. In this, we are uncomfortably reminded that what is necessary to succeed politically is to call upon the perverse propensities of a negative campaign. In the aftermath, voters are left used rather than energized and renewed in a unity of patriotic vision. Of course, candidates move on.

There remains a part of our voting consciousness that derives pleasure in the toxic spew of politicos who may carelessly poison the great wellspring of a new generation inspired after years of irresponsible divisiveness. It is all too apparent that some politicians will do nearly anything to win a nomination even if an attack made now may be redirected more destructively in the fall. Ohio voters are challenged to find one meaningfully addressed issue in the wake of the all the appearances, speeches and challenges for substance that filled primary campaigns in the state. We lost the great ideals and optimism many once found in the 2008 Presidential campaigns. Once again, we have stripped away the thin veil of innocence held at the forefront of campaigns to revealed the truth that we are no more than what we may aspire to be and while we do, we can be made less by words. We are made less when reminded that we are at times the people we would wish not to be.

Is it not fair to ask who may have lost in the divisive attacks that so repulse parts of the electorate that they chose to vote against rather than for a candidate. We are promised that each and every one of us must now plan to be exposed to a “fuller vetting process.” Perhaps we in the electorate have been vetted enough and it is time to separate leadership from division, direction rather than destruction and vision from vetting. Must we now expect candidates to follow principles of attack as a substitute for political leadership. Politics without a continuous focus on solving issues becomes distorted into a stark reminder that dividing voters means victory. The politicos move on, promises are made and left without substance, and the voting electorate is left divided. We learn that politicos promise much, attack what is promised and solve nothing.

Perhaps we will have leadership again, the kind of leadership that seeks more actual jobs in Ohio not words that remind us of jobs lost; control of utility rate increases rather than the mere recognition of increased costs; support for our teachers and better education for our children; proposals for meaningful legislation to address the mounting tragedy of home foreclosures or programs that establish additional grants of funds to assure warmth for those who face ever harsher winter weather without heat. Is it possible to remember now whether these issues were addressed? Perhaps fear adds a level of warmth to a child of unemployed parents shivering without heat in a home subject to foreclosure. Perhaps we again need a leadership that can direct a unified political party and assist the legislature to focus on serving the people of this state rather than use them for the prurient purposes of political pandering. Perhaps we now need leaders less smeared by the remnants of divisive words silently endorsed with a healing brought by reaching out to others with open hands focused on service.

We must rise above the words and divisive manipulation of political candidates. We must rise above the threat of our own fears to live meaningful lives in service to our families, our communities and our country. It is shameful that we have to endure the message of our politicians and it is us who must now rise above it. Perhaps there is a thought that we will all just forget and consider politics as usual as – politics as usual. I chose to hope for a light in each of us that calls us to a higher aspiration. Would we not all be better people for it?