The onslaught of stupid begins - Elections 2010

I just saw a commercial for gubernatorial candidate Mike Cox which convinced me that politics has taken a severe turn for the worse. It would appear that the republican party is now pandering towards the demographic that has little to no understanding of basic economic concepts nor any idea of how the political process works. It was supposed to be a smear ad against Pete Hoekstra - also republican candidate - ridiculing him for supporting the bailout and for voting to increase spending in the recession. Does this mean Mike Cox is pro-depression and anti-economic growth and recovery? (side note - ban smear campaigns. Don't tell me why that guy is bad - tell me why you are better) What's worse is that this plays into the hands of the ignorant voter rather than educating people as to why those actions were necessary. Mike Cox's campaign is betting that there are more ignorant people than intelligent people and is putting real economic recovery at risk in favor of political power. NOT COOL!!
This doesn't mean that it's the responsibility of every voter to fully understand political and economic processes; that's why we have politicians, they are people whose job is to know stuff so the regular Joe doesn't have to. I don't need to understand the nuances of medicine or chemistry to trust my doctor or pharmacist; that's their jobs. Somehow as a society we've gotten to a point where we seem to want politicians to be "regular people." I think it may go back farther than the McCain-Palin campaign against elitism but regardless, elitism is not a bad thing to demand of a person making decisions for a large population. Our political representatives should be "better" than a regular Joe, that's what makes them worthy of being a leader. They shouldn't have to explain and justify every little decision to people who don't understand the processes. It should be good enough to say "because that's the best option."
However, this whole idea is heavily based on trust and something has happened to completely erode people's trust in leaders. While some of the loss of trust is well-deserved from the actions of assholes; there are bad people everywhere and there are a lot of good people in politics as well. Much of the degradation of trust seems as though it could be attributed to partisan bickering (always trying to make the other guy the "bad guy"), constant "scapegoating," and a barrage of media hyperbole as news entities seek to make memorable stories. The result is a country that is rapidly polarizing; everyone must be a conservative or liberal and there's no middle ground. This lack of middle ground and refusal to work together towards a common goal (for fear of appearing "weak" which puts re-electability at risk) ultimately will lead this country in a position where there's a complete an inability to get anything done at the expense of real growth and development - everyone loses! Meanwhile we have legions of armchair politicians who have a vague understanding of the political process - not enough to help in any meaningful way but enough to do some serious damage to the stability of a system. Politicians on both sides are now catering to this crap; nothing good can come from this race to the bottom.

That other guy is a puppy-kicker, hates grandma, and thinks you are fat!

It's getting to be campaign season again! Oh boy! I can't wait, all these commercials that deify candidate A while demonizing candidate B. A few years back, a man named Jason Allen was running for state senate and his campaign was running a bunch of ridiculous ads. I don't remember exactly but they all had a dramatic voice saying something like "Jason Allen formed a committee that prevented the extinction of the wood duck." While, I appreciate that they weren't smear ads and were focusing on his accomplishments, unless Mr. Allen is a superhero of some sort there was a little bit of exaggeration involved. Maybe it was the dramatic way they were said or the intensity of the announcers voice, but the similarity between the ads and the Chuck Norris meme did not escape my two young sons. Soon the commercial would come on and one of them would say "Jason Allen invented scotch tape but let someone else take credit because he didn't need the money" or "Jason Allen worked with the Babylonians on the development of zero" or "Jason Allen advised Alexander the Great on strategies to consolidate his empire" (*side note - I have strange but intelligent children) and many many others.
I'd still take a campaign like that over a smear campaign any day. Towards the end of the last presidential race I was waiting for the McCain-Palin camp to break out "Sarah Palin may be a woman but at least she's white" or something like that. I do recall seeing one run on election day during The Price Is Right that showed a weird cardboard-cut-out-looking Obama in a rowboat in the middle of a stormy sea saying something along the lines of "Obama's policies would sink our nation and we'll all die horrible deaths at the hands of terrorists" -not exactly that but similar enough to be shocking.
I predict this campaign season will see some of the most ridiculous hyperbole to date. "That other guy is the devil incarnate! He wants to defile your firstborn sons and eat your dogs." "The other candidate is a closet zombie. He will cut funding to medicare so he can eat Grandma's brain!" "My opponent uses baby seals as clubs to beat baby whales!" "Candidate B wants to sleep with your spouse and has supported legislation that would require all toasters to only have one setting - burn everything!"
I fear it will be far more nefarious and dangerous than that..."My opponent believes responsible use of fiscal and monetary policy can ease the economy out of a recession and prevent a depression! That's a lie! Good ol' American ingenuity is what will save our economy. Let banks fail! If people lose their life savings, it's their own fault for putting it in a risky bank! I support trade reduction and tariffs as a way to boost internal production! We need to have fixed exchange rates to show the world our dollar is better! We need to spend more money proving our military dominance to the world and less money on research and development of unnecessary new technologies! We already have good ol' American technology, why would we need new ones? 'Green' Technologies are for hippies, we'll never run out of oil! We're number one, we're perfect as we are, it's everyone else that needs to change!"