The most boring race
10.23.2006A brief blurb about the November elections. Just because I promised. Frankly, I'm not too familiar yet w/ Pennsylvania politics. And so far our home hasn't been heavily targeted one way or the other. But I've got a decent handle on the senatorial contest for November. And I'm not impressed.
The incumbent is Rick Santorum (Republican). He's a pro-life, social & fiscal conservative. His opponent is Bob Casey (Democrat). He's a pro-life, social conservative w/ some fiscal conservative impulses. Both oppose same-sex marriage & gun control. So what's the difference? Me and Reason are both scratching our heads on that one.
Case in point. A few weeks back, I saw attack ads by Casey against Santorum. They attacked Santorum for being "too soft" on illegal immigrants. The attack was brutal, it made Santorum look like he was about to let the country get flooded w/ illegal immigrants who'll steal "American jobs" & change "our way of life" etc. Yikes. A week later, Santorum hit back, claiming that Casey was too soft on illegals, etc. Yikes again.
So. I'm left wondering why both candidates (who I can't really distinguish on other issues) are campaigning on the same platform. Either way, it seems both candidates are anti-immigrant. Right? That means people like me.
On what basis am I supposed to vote for one or the other? The answers seems to be: Party label. So my choices aren't for Senate, but rather for partisanship. Essentially my options are to vote for "cut & run" or for "stay the course" politics. But if the best the Democrats can muster is "Vote for us because we'll follow the same policies as the other party, but at least our leader's not Bush" then I wonder what the point of a second party is. I mean, Bush goes away in two years, right? I'm stuck w/ this new senator for the next six (well, I might not be here past two years, so maybe I shouldn't worry about it, eh?).
I'm w/ Reason. What a boring, lackluster, trivial campaign. Bleh.
Posted by Miguel at 08:36 PM
Comments
I'm not too familiar with Casey, but Santorum strikes me as too far right. And as for the illegal immigrant ads? Come down here. That's all the politcians seem to be talking about in their campaign ads. Someone's always too soft on solving the problem.
My favorite is Harry Mitchell's ad against J. D. Hayworth. "Since Hayworth has been in Congress the number of illegals has increased 400%." Yes, because J. D. himself went to Mexico and said let's bring a bunch of Mexicans to Arizona to piss people off. You know, for shits and giggles.
Posted by: Kara at October 25, 2006 09:51 AM
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