“William never spoke for he stood turned to stone as he stooped; and Bert and Tom were stuck like rocks as they looked at him. And there they stand to this day, all alone unless the birds perch on them; for trolls, as you probably know, must be underground before dawn, or they go back to the stuff of the mountains they are made of, and never move again.” The Hobbit.
The AD. The Ad was so vile, so reprehensible that my readers from Washington State to the tip of Florida immediately recognize the reference. But the Ad paled in comparison to the candidate who greenlighted its creation, reveled in its cruelty, and promoted it shamelessly. We did not need to wait for the sunrise of November 4th. Amy Acton vanquished the troll before the close of day on November 3rd. Her personal strength should not be underestimated.
We had a number of horrific television ads this campaign season. Many of the worst were courtesy of the Senate Leadership Fund. These ads were not used to sing the praises of appointed Senator Jon Husted. The Washington Republicans spent untold dollars to attack Sherrod Brown. The most amazing (by amazing I mean shocking and dishonorable) was the ad featuring Soren Aldaco, a very unhappy woman from Texas. Yes, Texas. Soon-to-be former Senator Husted never felt compelled to denounce this or any of the other misleading or totally false ads. He did want the voters of Ohio to know that Senator-elect Brown has held public offices almost his entire adult life. But Jon never mentions that he has held elected office since winning election in 2000, 26 years ago. What a troll. His goal has always been to be Mike DeWine or Sherrod Brown, lifetime public servants. He might share their ambitions, but he lacks their humanity. His time in the Senate was brief and unremarkable.
Decency was on ballots across the country. It won more often than not. There were candidates, from both the Democrats and the Republicans, that tested the voters’ internal values. Would they vote for Candidate X simply because he is a Democrat? Would they pull the lever for unqualified Candidate Y because she is a Republican? Does your county councilperson really want men to play in girls’ sports? Really? Is it even an issue? Is your state rep really a conman? Was it a sin that your elected official raised taxes to provide the services you and your community want and need? It can be tiring. So much misinformation and fearmongering. It became so overwhelming that the American public started to miss local car lot ads. And yet, we, the voters, overcame the best efforts of the Super PACs and the dark money.
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I worked outside my local polling site for six hours on election day. It turns out that six hours is a really long time to stand. As you can see from the picture at the top of this post, I was offering sample ballots to the in-person voters. I was stationed on the driveway. Every vehicle passed me on the way to the parking lot. One of the first was a pickup truck. The driver slowed down, opened his window, and aggressively gave me the finger. I believe he may have also shouted something wildly inappropriate. My initial thought was that I was glad that I got that out of the way. The rest of the day should be more positive.
The rest of the day was a breeze. I got lots of waves and thumbs ups. People stopped to get a sample ballot or showed me that they had brought one from home. Some came over to thank me and talk politics. Others intentionally looked away from me or gave me thumbs downs. I was surprised by how many people wanted me to know whether they were on my team or the other.
Several vehicles came in at the same time. The first two stopped and took a sample ballot for each voter in the car. The driver of the third car waved me off once he realized what I had. “No, I don’t need that. It would only tell me who not to vote for.” I said, “That’s Ok. Thank you for voting.”
You might be surprised that I thanked someone for coming to the polls to vote for the other side, all of the other side. But Elie Wiesel famously noted that “The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference”. 58% of Ohio’s registered voters participated in the midterm elections. Those are the people we should celebrate. Whether they voted by mail, took advantage of early voting, or came to their local polling station on Tuesday, these voters care. They are doing their civic duty. It is up to our candidates and our party to persuade these voters to choose us. We have that opportunity every 2 to 4 years to do a better job. I hope that we can convince more voters, not to reject the other side, but to make a positive move towards us.
And I hope that we have enough sunlight to vanquish the trolls.
Dave
Picture – The Other Side Says Eat at Joe’s – David L Cunix