Do You Recognize the 7 Early Warning Signs of an Electoral Process out of Control?

It has to be because I’m actually in a district where the race is close.  I’ve never had so many calls, so many polls taken, and so much stuff sent to me in the mail as I have had this election season.  There’s a sense in the air that there is a lot going on, that there is a lot that could change and that there is a lot at stake in how the different elections turn out tomorrow.  If I haven’t already said it– please go out and make your voice heard!  Why?  Because we have an electoral process that is out of control.

Here are some some of the early warning signs:

1. Politics and Religion have been so intertwined that it is deemed to be a political advantage to take down a member of the clergy. It’s the ultimate in negative campaigning– because it really doesn’t attack a specific candidate, but tried to link itself to all candidates.  This past week we saw someone that was outspoken critic of homosexuality and homosexual marriage be exposed to be someone that struggles with those very sins.  Instead of an effort to help the person (like his congregation did), the media jumped on the hypocrisy and wondered aloud how it would effect the Republican party and the election.
2. God is put on the ballot, and tested via polls just like candidates. American media is obsessed with statistics, and they have put God to the test via a poll to find that nearly half of Americans are not sure He exists.  One wonders how many people it takes to prove a person does or does not exist– and if I could find a bunch of people that believe that they really have a good chance of winning the lottery does that mean that they do?
3. Life is just another issue. More than any other issue in our country today, life inside the womb seems to be the defining line of American politics.  It’s the issue each candidate must take a stand on.  I wonder what the news, polls, and campaign commercials would look like if we still had slavery in this country.  I’m sure we’d have Pro-Slavery and Pro-Freedom forces.  If we ever come to our senses, people will look back at this time and marvel that a whole political party could define itself by the issue of whether a woman can kill her unborn child legally.
4. More controversial items are solved by courts rather then by the people. This is true of abortion, but it’s also true about same sex marriage.  The people of three states have now had civil unions or same sex marriage thrust upon them by an overreaching court.  This should have been decided by the people— and it is being rectified or prevented by the people– but elections are quickly becoming more about what people get on the court than the lawmakers themselves.  Lawmakers are becoming those that pass out the pork and the judges make the decisions.
5. Actors are weighing in hoping to cash in on celebrity while misleading the public. Michael J. Fox (who I really enjoyed in Back to the Future) stepped into the political ring again this year and was criticized for manipulating his condition to prove a point he was trying to make.  He is pushing for the government to fund more embryonic stem cell research which includes the destroying of pre-born babies to get at their stem cells– a form of cannibalism (you just don’t eat the cells– yet).  This caused yet another string of ads by actors and athletes for the other side– not quite sure their expertise in either politics or science.
6. Elections become more about turn out than ideas, ideals, and doing what’s right. The Mark Foley scandal was a timed event– since it came out that they knew about him long before he hit the front page.  Regardless of who was to blame, who knew, and when they knew it, it was designed to effect Republicans and keep them from the polls.  Time will tell if it worked.
7. More people are using sex appeal and stunts in the hope to gain office. Loretta Nall of the Libertarian party is one such person.  In previous elections we’ve had former porn stars, actors, and others believe that they can use a gimmick or something seedy to get them into an elected position.  It’s not about character and being a good representative– it’s about how many people I can get to look at me and think I’m cool.  It’s a popularity contest, didn’t you know?

Something has to be done about this, and soon.  As you can see, we’re a long way off from the dream that the founders had when they established this great nation.  We’re now having a side show, a mudslinging contest, and have turned our electoral process into a joke– a joke that compounded by the concept that “if we don’t win, we’re going to challenge it!”