What's Wrong With Politics Today?

Subtitle: Teabag or not Teabag..., is that really the question?

The noble Bruce Castor and noble Ed Boyd have said Josh Shapiro is a liar, and if it's true he should answer for it, for Bruce and Boyd are honorable men.

Example 1: The Republican County Commissioner ticket (with the help of sometimes Republican Committee Person, sometime leader of the local Tea Party, Ed Boyd), accuse Josh Shapiro of being a liar.

Josh Shapiro? Yes our State Representative, Josh Shapiro. Their claim is that since Josh met with local Tea Party constituents over a year ago, the Shapiro/Richards ad is lying about Mr. Castor's running mate being the only County Commissioner candidate to meet and agree with the tea party views. You can already tell their claim about Josh, ironically, is false.

Josh did not meet with the group as a candidate for Montgomery County Commissioner. In fact, even the Republicans admit it was over a year ago in October 2010. But hey, why let facts get in the way of a good sound-bite, especially when you can attack the character of someone who has worked extremely hard for all of Abington.

But of course, they are honorable men.

So, why attack Josh this way? Well, let’s move on to …

Example 2: Mr. Castor's commercial "suggests" that Josh Shapiro voted for raising Pensylvania State income tax. This is patently false.

Mr. Castor knows that the Pennsylvania State income tax was raised one-and-a-half years — that’s right — one-and-a-half years before Josh Shapiro was actually in office. Mr. Castor admits this in an interview with Abington's own Larry Kane (at 5:10, link below)

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/10/30/republicans-debate-dems-on-larry-kanes-voice-of-reason/

But it's all good to Bruce, because he reminds us later on that "you have to listen closely to the words used ... We didn't say he voted to raise taxes, he supported them …"

OK Bruce, we'll listen more closely next time. Following Mr. Castor's lead, here's a link where we can listen closely to his words about supporting raising taxes in Montgomery County, right after a clip of him saying he never supported raising taxes before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRTgCMi1FZ8&feature=youtu.be

 But of course, they are honorable men.

So, you see how this goes, put an inaccurate commercial out, then call your opponent a liar, then complain about politics. This is probably a good spot to pause for a “momma mia,” “oy vey,” or whatever your preferred expression of frustration may be … Go ahead, I'll wait.

We watch this stuff happen nationally and wonder what the truth is, since we don't really know any of the people personally, it's tough to be sure. But in Abington, we all know the high quality of Josh Shapiro, and now it seems we also know the quality of the Republican ticket. Josh Shapiro is respected not only in our township and county, but across the state as a reformer and innovative legislator in the State House. We all know he has worked extremely hard for Abington, so Abington, come out in droves on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Make your two votes count and support our own Josh Shapiro and his running mate, Leslie Richards.

Oh, I didn't forget Mr. Boyd. So, apparently there is a "request" from Mr. Boyd (republican committee person and self-proclaimed leader of the local tea party), for me to either apologize  and/or resign as Chair of the Abington Rockledge Democratic Committee because I identified him as the "self-proclaimed leader of the local “Teabaggers" in a prior post some months ago.

I know that a lot of you read the prior posts months ago and I'm thankful for all the support. However, as I said above, the local political spin machine is a microcosm of what is wrong with politics today. The prior posts, and I see some comments on this site recently, show the context of the word. But even further, now I see Mr. Boyd is not really outraged by the word "Teabagger," nor does he believe that “teabagger” is vulgar in this context.  If he did, why would he use it all over his own website referring to himself (I did say self-proclaimed, right?) and calling other people Teabaggers? Google is a wonderful thing, a few examples from Mr. Boyd's site:

"conservative teabag sweep"

"Just one tea-baggers opinion"

"for Tea-baggers only"

"It made this Tea-bagger proud!"

"Who says conservative tea-baggers can't Rock Da House"

"Rock Da House"? Wow.  Anyway, you get the gist. So, is Mr. Boyd a hypocrite? Who knows? But, like the examples above, this is what's wrong with politics, period. (Not just today, as the Shakespeare references suggest, this has always been the case).  Some will try to discuss the issues, while a few others will scream about nonsense and quarter-truths that they themselves don't truly believe. Birth certificates, Teabaggers, Swiftboating, “taking back the country,” supporting versus raising taxes, it’s all the same.

But I do thank them for reminding all of us: The fight locally and even nationally is not with the people registered as Republican, Democratic, Independent, or other. As corny as it may sound, the fight is to find the truth and against those that would obscure it, a lot of whom, I’m sure, will chime in on this post.

But of course, they are all honorable.

On Tuesday, Nov. 8 Abington, whatever your party, be a voter.

Thank you for your attention.