Personal experience with politics

By: Kelsey Cole
Contributing Writer

I am revolted, disappointed and angered at what I have personally seen this election. Negative campaigning, illogically pitting Democrats against Republicans (and vice versa) simply because of their party stance and using this to oust proper representatives seems to be the norm in election campaigns. And I’m not talking about presidential elections; I’m talking about the mid-terms.

I have directly experienced these disgusting tactics being targeted against my own mother, Sandy Cole, who has just ran a campaign for the State House of Representatives.

Although I am not a political science major, my observations are legit from the perspective of an average citizen revolted at the tactics of the government that is supposed to represent her—the average citizen. Because of my “average” position, there will be no statistical results or in-depth research on politics—simply a regular citizen’s perspective with a personal experience with America’s political process.

In order to understand where I come from, I’ll provide some background information on my mom.

About 10 years ago, my mother ran a neighborhood protest against condominium construction on wetlands behind our neighborhood’s houses. She desperately advocated the preservation of the wetlands where the condos were going to be built but to no avail; the county board ignored her and several others’ requests and approved the development.

Frustrated from being ignored, she decided that the only way to prevent instances like the aforementioned was to be a part of the approval process—to be a member of the county board.

After 10 years on her local county board, she felt the time had come where she had experienced enough governmental procedure to step up to the next level. So, my mom decided to run for state office in the Illinois House of Representatives this year.

During the primaries, she was put up against a woman with little experience in politics and governmental procedure. Many of the local conservative republicans used my mom’s opponent to oust her out of a higher office. Their resentment resulted from my mom’s record of protecting open space from development that could have lined some pockets with money.

Having campaigned seven times before, my mom was able to deal with the slanderous and degrading remarks from her opponent and her opponent’s supporters and won the primary by a wide margin.

Moving on to the general election, my mom felt confident in her campaign. She had many and strong supporters from her county board district and received endorsements from prominent sources including “The Chicago Tribune,” the Illinois Education Association, the Daily Herald Newspapers, Illinois Committee for Honest Government and Sierra Club Illinois.

My mother’s opponent had no experience in any elected office and few endorsements. Because she had nothing else to run on, she chose negative campaigning to belittle my mom. She fabricated lies, said my mom raised taxes without explaining what the taxes were for, stole and ripped down signs (even from private property), called her a “lazy liberal” in her literature, told conservative Republican citizens my mom was pro-choice (without stating she was pro-choice as well)—and all of this simply to win - over a liberal Republican, even if she has similar beliefs.

First, my concerns will start with negative campaigning. Campaigning, such as this, disgusts me because it manipulates and distorts facts to win an election. The end justifies the “means.” So, why would a legitimate candidate use this tactic? I believe it is because the candidate is not legit and can only win through lies. Are these the kind of people we want in office, running our government? People who must lie about their opponent instead of telling the truth about themselves?

Another thing I am concerned about is the Democrat/Republican divide. It’s considered that you’re either one or the other; there is no middle ground. This belief causes those that do choose to be in the middle ground (like my mom who is a liberal Republican) to be condemned for their party stance and not their actions.

I believe that the Democrats only see that my mom is a Republican and therefore must be voted out. I doubt the many Democrat supporters of my mom’s opponent truly looked at my mom’s credentials; if so, they would have seen that my mom is very similar to a Democrat, except that she understands the value of tax payers’ dollars and knows how to spend it properly.

The final concern I have is that by pitting Democrats against Republicans and vice versa, I believe it only leaves the most concerned and best representatives of the general populace abandoning or being discouraged from politics.

This is no way for our governmental electoral process to run. It beats down the just because the unjust prey on their emotions and know that the just will not retaliate with the same tactics. Citizens can see this as weak or are more compelled to believe the negative campaigning because it is more emotionally attractive.

My concerns with negative campaigning, Democrats versus Republicans, and the failure of politics to attract true representatives (and instead attracts those seeking to benefit themselves) are some that have arisen from my personal experience with an election campaign.

In the future, perhaps we can surpass such petty games and elect true and just representatives.