Waxing political....

[poltr1]

The election ads have begun. And so has the mudslinging.

It started with Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland, saying his oppoent John Kasich worked for Lehman Brothers (the failed Wall Street brokerage firm). The Republicans shot back, using Senatorial candidate Lee Fisher as the scapegoat for losing 400,000 jobs in Ohio.

I really don't know who to believe or trust anymore.

I lean toward the Democratic side of things, because they support the social liberal position.

Bottom line: Do I hold my nose and vote Democratic this November? Or do I risk pissing away my vote and voting Libertarian all the way?

Comments

Kasich is a snob; he was one to me.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

I believe Strickland when he says that Kasich worked for Lehman Brothers. Kasich disappeared for a while from the state political scene, at about the right time. Since WOSU-AM & NPR affirm it, I trust it as more than just political mudslinging.

Back in the early 1990's when I was new to Ohio, I lived in the 12th Congressional district, and Kasich's name showed up on my ballot every 2 years. There was one issue that came up (although now I can't recall what it was) that I felt strong enough about at the time to call my representative's office.

The person who answered the phone at Kasich's office, when they found out that I lived in the OSU campus district, obnoxiously insisted that Kasich could not possibly be my representative. They absolutely refused to take my message, refused to take my voting address, and insisted that I had to live in the 15th district, and was stupid for wasting their time.

When I called Deborah Pryce's office, the Representative for District 15, her telephone answerer was a lot more polite, and apologized gently for having to turn me away, but because of my street address, I really did live in Kasich's district instead of Ms. Pryce's.

If you look in the map of Ohio's districts, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oh_districts_map.PNG) you'll see how districts 15 & 12 both spiral in to the heart of Columbus (back then, it was worse: a third district snaked in there too). Nevertheless, you would think that political workers would thereby take pains to pin down precisely where their district's borders were. Instead, Kasich's instructions to his office staff yielded that attitude of "if you can't do something for me politically, you OSU student slime, why should I care what you think on an issue? Go crawl away and die!"

And guess what: next biannual Election Day, whose name is on my ballot? Why, Kasich's, of course. And the biannum after that, and the biannum after that.

And be careful of the Ohio libertarian candidate, who says that his state taxes are rising, so that his platform says that the state income tax will be eliminated.
Last year, any Ohioan who calculated their own taxes with a State of Ohio Tax Table learned that they were receiving and had received, in fact, several tax cuts in the past several years. I heard lots & lots of conservative p*ssing and moaning about how high the taxes had risen, and I knew those people had fobbed the job off to some accountant or software, just so they could stay willfully ignorant and preserve their unjustified right to b*tch.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

In my opinion? You hold your nose and vote democratic, and try to get as many people as you can to do the same.

I consider myself relatively centrist, but the current crop of Republicans scares me senseless. I don't think much of their "completely divorced from reality" approach to government policy...or indeed, to pretty much everything.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I recommend factcheck.org to see if you can find actual truth. "X worked at Lehman Brothers" is verifiable; "Y was responsible for losing 400,000 jobs" may or may not be. Try before you decide.

I'm inclined to vote for the Democrats, just because the possibility of the Republicans -- and especially the Tea Party - getting back into power and completing the destruction of the economy, as begun under GW Bush, is too scary to contemplate.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I am so completely disgusted with the political situation that I can't really offer any useful advice. I see the Democrats as generally wanting to do the right things, but so incredibly incompetent and spineless that they're not fit to govern; I see the Republicans as much more able to make things happen, but wrong on almost every issue and actively evil on a lot of important ones.

For my own ballot, I'll try to look at how close the major races seem to be by voting time. I'll vote for the Democrat if I think it's close, and Green otherwise to show my opposition to the two party system.

[zorya-thinks.livejournal.com]

I intend to vote for Democrats this year. One reason is that I am in District 8 and I wouldn't vote for Boehner if you paid me cash money. A second reason is whoever is in power for the next few years will redraw the congressional districts for the state. If you like the gerrymandered monstrosities the Republicans came up with after the 2000 census by all means, vote Republican. If however you want logically drawn districts that won't necessarily create "safe" voting districts for either party vote Democratic.

In any case vote for the people who you think will do the best job in the offices for which they are running.

I wish I could say that a third party candidate would have a chance in a state wide race but the way things are they have very little chance to win office. At the local level, maybe, but not for House, Senate or Governor.