In the four years I have been able to vote, I have never thought that I would feel dirty going to the polls. This year I do.
Pointing fingers, placing blame and slinging mud usually stays on the playground between children. However, it has dominated this year’s gubernatorial race. Over the past six months, my Facebook, Twitter and news feeds have been filled with negative campaign ads with shots fired from both sides of the aisle. It did not really hit me how bad this race was until I spent three hours in the car listening to the radio where every other commercial was a political advertisement.
The candidates have spent an exhausting amount of money telling me why I should not vote for their opponent and very little as to why I should vote for them. Seems strange, huh? Unfortunately, it is the nature of the campaign trail.
Typically in every race, there will be mudslinging coming from the underdog to force the front runner into answering their opponent. Yet of the 84 videos released by the gubernatorial candidates, there was no direct answer from either sides’ complaints. Speaking of numbers, let’s break down these videos: 48 percent of the videos directly slung mud at their opponent, 15 percent addressed issues that they want to change, six percent defined who they were and what they stand for, 18 percent are videos of support from voters or fellow politicians, and 10 percent were general vote for me while the last three percent were repeated ads in Spanish.
Do you see a problem here? I surely do. When I am thinking about who I want to be in charge of our government till the next election, I want to feel comfortable with who I am voting into office. If I just listened to the ads, we as Texans would be voting in a crook, liar, pedophile supporter, unethical business maker, unethical political leader, etc. The choice of who to vote for should not feel like the better of two evils but that is how is race has made it feel.
We have all heard “don’t believe everything you hear” at some point in our lives, and this rings true with this race. Taking that advice, I went in search of my own information to see what these candidates stand for and their voting records in the past. While I am still very displeased about how the campaigns have gone, I plan to vote for the candidate I feel represents my interests best.
I encourage you to not only go out and vote but to turn off your radio and T.V. and go look at what these candidates actually have done and plan to do. Make your own decision, and wipe the dirt off of your eyes and out of our ears because you are in the crossfire.