Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

This is an election campaign year and the way things have been going with campaigns over the past few years I’m not looking forward to it.

I don’t understand why people have to be so nasty over political issues.

We were in South Carolina in February for a week and the television was swamped with ads for and against Nikki Haley and for and against president Donald J. Trump prior to that states’ primary. It was absolutely disgusting. I cannot imagine having young children at home watching TV and seeing that trash. What do they learn from that about expressing their feelings about others? Is it any wonder kids turn to violence when they see adults verbally bash each other?

It is fine to have different opinions on issues and fine to express concerns with various positions on issues. Its fine to suggest there are better ways to resolve issues and offer those solutions. Its fine to say some proposed solutions won’t work and why. That’s what the United States is all about, talking about issues and ways to resolve them.

But do we have to be so nasty about it?

I sent letters to both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee to encourage discussions of issues and discourage nastiness.

I sent real letters, not emails. Real letters do take more time and cost more but I suspect that a hand-addressed letter will get more attention than an email. For one thing, it will probably be opened to see if there is a donation in it! For another, people should know that you are serious enough to go to the extra work.

The democrats.org and gop.org are both official websites for the respective parties but what pops up is largely fundraising. I didn’t notice any way to contact the parties via mail. If you look elsewhere in a search you will find addresses. They are: Republican National Committee, 310 1st Street SE, Washington D.C. 20003 and Democratic National Committee, 430 South Capitol Street SE, Box 96585, Washington D.C. 20077-7242.

If you’re not a fan of either of those parties, others can be found on the internet.

Political parties often hide behind political action committees (PACs) and let them do the really dirty work. They are legally not supposed to coordinate with campaigns but it is hard to believe they don’t at least informally. Even so, if the RNC or DNC heard an ad was offensive and would hurt their candidate more than help I suspect they would find a way to get word to the PAC to “stop that, it’s hurting our candidate.”

My feeling is that this nastiness keeps some good people from running for public office. What normal person would want facts and information about him or her twisted and turned to make a person look like a crook or worse? And I think our kids and grandkids can get the idea that people running for office are a bunch of nasty people who can’t be respected or trusted. Both are serious issues that can result in long-term damage to our democracy. And that’s what my letters say.

We need good leaders we all can respect, people with whom we may not agree all the time but who we know without a doubt have the best interests of our country, state, county, city, township or school board at heart. Good leaders listen, learn and act in the best interest of the organization they govern.

Turning this boat of nastiness around will take time. But if we never start it will never happen!

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I had previously mailed letters to the two political parties the same day, January 5, 2024. Haven’t heard a word back yet. And the letters were not returned for incorrect addresses. They were based on the nastiness I was already hearing about possible presidential candidates for office.

            I also sent a letter to our representative in Congress the same day. Got a call from a person who said she was a staff member and that she couldn’t show the letter to Rep. Fischbach because it was a campaign issue. So I sent a letter to the campaign office March 4 and haven’t anything there, either.