“Stay away from politics,” I am told.
“If you do write about politics, you must pick a side,” they tell me.
That’s a real problem for someone who cares as much as I do about the greater good and likes to be a part of the solution.
I just don’t see many political candidates who truly represent what I believe on all the issues and that’s because we are, for all intents and purposes, stuck with this frustrating two-party system that essentially makes us choose one extreme or the other. I have very little in common with the radical left or the radical right, so trying to find candidates with common sense that are fiscally conservative and socially responsible is becoming harder and harder these days.
Remember, I am the commonsense guy. The “Pragmatic Passioneer” who likes to Dream Big. Keep It Real. Get It Done. I get sick to my stomach watching these negative ads where each candidate and their respective campaign committees “approve this message” attacking their opponents instead of focusing on how they will pragmatically solve the issues that matter to me. The lack of common courtesy and mutual respect in politics is so disappointing. If you think the Fetterman/Oz Senate race ads are bad in Pennsylvania, you should see what’s going on 30 minutes away from me in Georgia between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. Where’s Miss Manners when you need her?
Yet despite my frustration I will get out to vote today because it is my right as an American to do so. I hope you will get out and vote as well. But I ask if you are going to do so, that you do your homework and choose wisely.
I have no dog in your fight anymore, as I will be voting in South Carolina for the first time ever this Tuesday. But I still care about my native state, Centre County and Ferguson Township. Our issues here in the Lowcountry are different but similar. The solutions offered are similar but different. I’m not going to tell you who to vote for as that is a deeply personal issue. But if you are going to vote, do so wisely, with purpose, using your common sense to guide you.
Remember that sage advice you heard as a kid that, “Just because your friends jumped off a bridge doesn’t mean you have to.” People will walk in and simply vote for their party. I’ve done it in the past; I bet a lot of you have as well. The longer I am around and the shorter my time is on this third rock from the sun, the more I discern and the more I dig.
For example, If I did still live in Pennsylvania, I know this: Despite the shortcomings of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro, I would cast my vote for each of them in their respective races because they pass my commonsense tests far more than John Fetterman or Doug Mastriano.
My phone, email, text, and Facebook page will be blowing up after this is published. So be it. Have at me and let’s have a good old fashioned adult discussion. You know, debate without being debatable. Sorry, Fetterman and Mastriano are way too “out there” for a commonsense guy like me.
Here’s what really frustrates me. How has it come to this? What rational person would want to jump into today’s political fray? Why are we stuck with some of the worst of the worst instead of the best of the best when it comes to our choices?
Why? Because of the lack of decorum and standards in our lives that allows an “anything goes” environment where sensationalism rules the airwaves. We older folks spend too much time getting our news and indoctrinations from equally gullible friends on Facebook while the younger folk are distracted by sending funny Instagram and TikTok videos by the minute but can’t take time to learn to balance a checkbook or to work in a service industry job. I am so tired of the mainstream media that I can’t watch CNN or FOX and get my world news from the BBC!
So, a few pet peeves on this voting thing now that we went down the rabbit hole.
The One-Issue Voter. Whether its abortion, the economy, immigration, the environment, healthcare, education, etc., what if a candidate stood for 95% of the things you believed in but disagreed with you on that one long-standing issue that you have made a deal breaker in the past? You continue to fall on your sword for that one issue, and while noble, is it moving the needle toward progress on anything else? Perhaps if enough of those candidates won over the years you could once and for all find momentum to win the one battle that you think matters the most and can stop complaining about the other issues.
The Energy Crisis. As the author of a recent column “The Coming Global Energy Crisis and How to Address It,” I have made my feelings well known. Despite what President Biden erroneously recently announced about the affordability of solar and wind energy and what many people naively want to believe, we are not even close to realistically having enough sustainable energy to power the world’s needs. The sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow. Common sense. Pragmatic. I will vote for the candidate who discusses a pragmatic clean energy plan. Stop with the all-or-nothing scare tactics. We will get to cleaner, sustainable energy with the right plan, but we need our American energy resources right now more than ever.
Education Crisis. Our test scores are dropping. Our kids are not learning the skills they need to learn to be competitive in the real world. I will support the candidates that want to stop teaching kids what to think and will teach them how to think. Want to help solve the mental health crisis at public schools? Stop cutting extracurricular activities like music, art, theater and sports while adding more layers of needless bureaucracy. Take that money and start paying teachers more and get them more support, but also hold them more accountable for performance. Hire more professional guidance counselors and boots-on-the-ground therapists. Most of all, give the teachers back the ability to have discipline in their classrooms.
Immigration Crisis. I believe in immigration. My grandparents were immigrants. But I can’t understand on any level how anyone can support what is going on at the southern border. It’s quite simply an invasion. We have no idea who is coming into our country and with what intent.
I believe we need people who want to be American citizens because they believe what our country has to offer and what it represents. So, let’s have a process that determines that and not provide a sanctuary for criminals and a free pass for those who want to destroy our way of life. Again, common sense tells us we need a plan, we need a system, and the default should be to close the borders until such a time when we have that plan, not to simply pretend it’s OK to let anyone in the country under any circumstances until we do have a plan.
I have more to say but will save it for a rainy day. Until the day that there is officially a “Common Sense” party of likeminded followers, I will have to do the best I can and vote with my head and my heart by developing options and choosing wisely.
