Politics taking over TV

by Carole Moore, Jacksonville Daily News, August 16, 2015.

If you’re like me, turning on the news these days is a lot like playing Russian Roulette — only instead of bullets and a gun, we have a remote and lots of talking heads opining on political matters. It’s easy to tell the candidates from the pundits. The candidates don’t ever really answer the questions posed to them and the pundits argue a lot, usually with one another. A few observations:

Donald Trump’s been busy comparing himself to Ronald Reagan. I don’t see it. Reagan was a statesman who knew how to play amazing political chess. Trump calls people “stupid.” Hurling invectives isn’t statesmanship, but I do kind of like the idea of Trump facing off against Putin.

Allowing two women to kick you out of your own event doesn’t exactly scream president to me. Sorry, but Bernie Sanders needs to grow a pair.

If the idea of another Bush-Clinton mash-up trips your trigger, then you’re in the minority. I’m pretty certain there are enough people in this country qualified to be president without returning to those overfished waters.

Rand Paul’s foreign policy views scare the crap out of me. I’m sure my outlook is tempered by many years of association with the military, but I think he’s vastly deluded. This country can’t exist in a foreign policy vacuum.

Both sides of the political coin have crazies and some of the candidates border on frightening. Far right and far left are both too far off-center for this old independent. I’m hoping for a little moderation, a move towards reality over rhetoric and a real choice. Right now I’m not too hopeful that I will find either one, but you never know. Someone could step up to the plate. Stranger things have happened.

I’m already receiving political advertisements in the mail. They haven’t started the robocalls yet, but I’m sure that’s just around the corner. Tell me, isn’t it 2016 already? We don’t even have official party-backed candidates yet and I, for one, am already weary of the whole thing.

Feel free to disagree with me. One woman’s trash is another’s treasure. And I won’t tell you how to vote, nor will I hype one party over another. Like religion, I believe that one’s political views are a personal matter, built by years of experience. I wouldn’t want to live in a country where people can’t differ on political issues. Say what you want about this land, we really do have the best of all worlds: a place where we can say what we think without fear of government reprisal. And that’s worth living through yet another annoying political race.