How many Republican presidential candidates are we up to now? Fourteen? Fifteen? More than a baker’s dozen, certainly.
The possibilities boggle the mind.
We’re no doubt in for a wing-doodle of a Republican primary. Candidates will beat each other up trying to out-conservative each other.
Democrats can sit back and watch the political haboob from the relative safety of a two-candidate primary race and wait for the Republicans to damage each other as candidates before the general election in 2016.
Yeah, 2016. More than a year away. And the campaign is already underway. Please join me in a collective “Ugh.”
I’m not one who revels in the political horse race, in the back and forth and so-called gaffes, or in the moment a candidate is forced off-message. You’re probably not, either.
Give me smart people with ideas they’re not afraid to talk about and explain in real terms and I’m a happy camper. I might not agree with you, but at least give us something to chew on.
Give me more than chucking mud at your opponent.
I’d like to think that it was better in the old days, whenever those were — if they were. But clippings my mom sent me this week from the Concordia (Kansas) Daily Blade are a small reminder that politics has been ever thus.
The piece, from the “news” section of the March 31, 1917, newspaper, details the nefarious rumor campaign against my great-great-grandfather, Alonzo Dolphus Millirons, in the race for mayor of Concordia.
The article details that supporters of the sitting mayor, Mr. Willumbill, are trying whatever they can to keep him in power:
“They are trying to make it seem a disgrace that Mr. Millirons was once a farmer. They are telling that he buys all his groceries and dry goods from Sears-Roebuck and Montgomery Ward. They say he is tight and will squeeze a dollar until the eagle screams. That is the kind of campaign that they are making against Mr. Millirons.”
The Blade investigated the claims of non-local purchases. Saying a Concordia man spent his money outside the community was a big accusation.
“The records of the railroad offices for the past four years show that he has never received a shipment from either of these mail order houses. It seems that everything goes in a city campaign.”
The smears change, the way they’re spread change, but there’s hope, according to the Concordia Blade.
“Campaign lies always act as a boomerang and these old time politicians who have ruled this city for so long are getting desperate. The people are demanding a change and the old gang is dying hard.”
I hope that’s true. I hope people recognize campaign lies, whether from candidates, their campaigns or supporters, and that the lies come back to hurt those who tell them.
By the way, Mr. Millirons won his race for mayor of Concordia, Kansas.
The lies didn’t work then.
Let’s hope voters won’t let them win now.
