Real Election Fraud

Carol Campbell is a Democrat running for state representative in Michigan's 83rd House District. She is doing so because she thinks the current representative, Paul Muxlow, a Republican, is against the middle class. That's no surprise. Yet there is a part of her campaign which, quite frankly, doesn't help her cause. She has a billboard up which reads, "Keep your mitts off our Social Security and Medicare." If that's her opinion, fine. The trouble is that Social Security and Medicare are not state but rather Federal issues.

The St. Clair County Democratic Committee defends the billboard as an example of her moral compass. That may apply to her personal opinion on those questions, but as she is running for a Michigan political office it cannot help her cause. Indeed, it actually brings her moral compass into question: shouldn't she be concerned with Michigan issues? As such, it leaves the voter to wonder whether she has a real grasp on any issues at all.

Candidates need to concentrate on the issues which they will potentially face in the job they seek. If they do not or will not, then they ought to expect defeat at the ballot box. We're not saying that that will happen to her; the voting public isn't necessarily up on the differences between state and national issues either, and some will surely vote for her based on her stands on Social Security and Medicare. Yet that only demonstrates that some voters are knee jerk voters.

A political candidate, though, should know better. Running for the Michigan House on federal issues is tantamount to shyster politics. It is at the least stupid and at the worst, downright immoral. You're trying to get your potential constituents riled up over issues which you cannot affect. It's a fraudulent way to seek election.

When pressed for a better answer to the question than 'it reflects Ms. Campbell's moral compass', the St Clair County Democratic Committee said that it was harassment to harp on the question and refused to consider it further. So much for free speech; so much for addressing issues rather than sentiment. So much, indeed, for trying to tell the voting public what it needs to know in order to make a decent decision at the polls.

Or do we have enough information? In this case, we certainly do. That one question speaks volumes about the mentality of liberal Democrats. Getting elected is what matters, and the questions we must face in the office we seek be damned. It is shallow politicking such as this which gives politicians the bad name so many of them deserve. We deserve better from our candidates and elected representatives.

Just Another Politician?

Really, Congressman Clarke? You're playing the race card? Really? This is truly a disappointment. We had a high opinion of you. We could never vote for you, but you had always seemed so sincere. We remember you going door to door in your first campaign for a seat in the Michigan Legislature: so excited, so emphatic, so believable. You didn't sound like a politician. You sounded like a man of conviction. And now you don't. Where is the breath of fresh air which you brought to politics? Where is the young man who breathed it? To be sure, we know nothing of robocalls and we do not care to know. Perhaps you are being slighted, and shame on those who do it. But where is the man who would rise above that and present himself as worthy of support? Where is the earnest American who we at least felt had what he thought the best interests of his community in his heart? Where has he gone? The youngster, whoever he was, who said so long ago, 'Say it ain't so, Joe', is now asking, 'Say it ain't so, Hansen.' Will you say that? Can you say that? Why not go to the debate in Southfield this afternoon and present yourself as Hansen Clarke, genuine and forthright. Maybe the fates have dealt you a cruel blow; you aren't the first to suffer such. But you can be one of the ones who rise above it. You are capable of that. Or are you indeed just another politician? Please do not be. You are better than that.