In the homestretch now …

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor Y es, it’s (thankfully) almost election day 2020!

I usually enjoy the election season. It’s always important to hear from our elected leaders and our potential new leaders and listen to what they have to say about how they are going to make life better for all of us. Well, at least that’s what it used to be.

While I’ve always had an interest in politics, even at a young age, the first election I really remember paying attention to was in 1988. Once I realized that Ronald Reagan (who it seemed had been president all my life) wasn’t going to be president anymore, I really got into the 1988 primary season. I was in the ninth grade for most of the early part and by November, I was in the tenth grade, just to give you an idea about where I was and who the candidates were. It was especially cool because we were definitely getting a new president and both parties were running primaries.

I was already, even as a teenager, leaning pretty far to the left, but I thought Vice-President George Bush and Senator Bob Dole were the front-runners, but I personally liked Rep. Jack Kemp on the GOP side. Of the slate of Democrats, Senator Al Gore was my pick, but Rep. Dick Gephardt was also a good one. And even though I knew he had no shot, I thought it was very cool to see Rev. Jesse Jackson picking up some delegates in the early going. For those who don’t recall or weren’t old enough, the nomination eventually went to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

It was this campaign, though, that I first saw the dirty politics of a presidential campaign play out before my eyes. Dukakis was smeared for being weak on crime for allowing Willie Horton out of prison, who then murdered a woman. Bush was tied to the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal and for questionable decisions made while head of the CIA. Of course, the biggest scandal of the election cycle was the downfall of front-runner for the Democrats, Senator Gary Hart, whose campaign was derailed over rumors of an extramarital affair. That almost seems laughable looking back with what we know about Bill Clinton’s oval office hijinks and Donald Trump’s hush money paid to porn stars, but in 1988, it was a campaign killer.

Mudslinging during presidential campaigns is nothing new, and it wasn’t new in 1988, but it was the first time I realized that it wasn’t really about policy and ideology differences. These candidates and their backers were apparently willing to stoop to great depths to not only make their candidate look better but to paint their opponents in the worst light imaginable. Nowadays, it’s even worse. I’m not even talking about Trump and Biden. Have you paid any attention to the regional races? I watch every Atlanta Braves game I can find, and they’re usually on Fox Sports Southeast, which reaches here in Arkansas, as well as Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and a few other states, and let me tell you, the candidates for the congressional seats or governor’s offices in some of those states are just the worst. Don’t believe me? Just ask the “committee to elect the other candidate.” Those commercials are so awkward and over the top they make me cringe.

Probably the worst part of election season these days is that, well, it’s always election season. It never stops. I mean, the 2020 presidential campaign really started in 2018, right after the midterm elections. I saw an article just yesterday that was titled, “The 2024 Election has already started.” And while that’s a bit of a stretch, it’s really not. Over the next two weeks, Early Voting is underway. I saw that more than 2,000 people voted in Crittenden County on Monday, the first day polls were open. Nationwide, more than 20 million votes have already been cast, not even counting any mail-in votes that are making their way through the postal process.

But with all of this rhetoric, it kind of becomes white noise and we get what analysts call “voter fatigue.” The election is November 3rd, and after that, no matter who wins or loses, we’ll probably get a little bit of a break from all the ads and such, but it will start back up before too long. All I can say is, I know these are uncertain times, and I know for some of the issues our nation faces there are no easy answers, but I encourage all of you to take the time between now and the election to go to the polls and cast your votes. We may not agree on candidates or political parties, but I think we can all agree on that.