Political system is broken beyond repair
If democratic politics is the means by which individuals are empowered to govern, then we are in a very bad way, especially when it comes to the state senate.
This time last year there was the sorry spectacle of the Pat Stefano-Deberah Kula race, in which the chief issues seemed to be whether or not Kula was a limousine liberal and an Ed Rendell flunky and Stefano’s supposed record of wasting tax dollars through mismanagement as a sewage authority chairman as well as some youthful transgressions of the law.
Stefano, the Republican, won, though not on the strength of his arguments: Somerset County, a GOP stronghold, cushioned his path to victory.
This time around there is the campaign for the state senate seat formerly held by Matt Smith, a Democrat, who resigned to become the chief of the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce.
You’ve seen the TV ads for this one — they are all over network television; the ones featuring cherub-faced Guy Reschenthaler and the warm, fuzzy, embracing Heather Arnet.
Reschenthaler is the Republican; Arnet the Democrat; although you would never know it from their commercials. Neither bothers to say which party nominated them or which party they will caucus with in Harrisburg; as for simply labeling themselves — Democrat or Republican — it’s not going to happen.
As a result, voters are led to believe (the campaigns fervently hope) that the candidates are not concerned with such a slight thing as party affiliation. Well, if it makes the candidates feel better about themselves, why not, though I’m here to tell you it’s not true — it means plenty.
(You may also have wondered just where these two are running, since that’s never mentioned either. The real estate they hope to represent includes chunks of Allegheny County, principally the South Hills, including Jefferson Hills (Thomas Jefferson High School) and Peters Township in Washington County.
The campaigns’ television ads are laughable — concoctions of charges signifying nothing; they are dishonest and insincere, and they are no way helpful to voters trying to decide between the two, and no way helpful to the important business of governing.
Thus, we have Reschenthaler proclaiming his attachment to “values” shared by all “western Pennsylvanians” with the evident except of Arnet, who is described as another in a long line of “tax-and-spend liberals” out to bankrupt the state.
Arnet, if it’s possible, is worse: she says that Reschenthaler is intent on ruining Social Security while also aiming to raising property taxes.
Now, the last I knew Social Security was run by the feds and raising real estate taxes was a function of township supervisors, city councils and school boards.
The charges, from both sides, are divorced from reality. Whichever of these clowns is sent to Harrisburg will have been elected on the basis of falsehoods so profound as to be farcical.
They, and their handlers, evidently think voters are stupid, and maybe they’re right. Otherwise, how in the world did the campaigns come up with these arguments?
True, political campaigns are conducted not in pastels but in bright colors, the better to differentiate my side from yours. It’s a given that campaigns are hard fought; and the arguments are not always fair.
After all, the reasoning goes, voters are not moved by a fair-minded recitation of views or facts. That’s all rather boring, and the one thing a candidate can not do is to put people to sleep.
Emotions move voters — arguments with an edge and a bite to them.
Still in all, the temper of campaigns should be based on a rough reality; otherwise, politics is a farce, elections mean nothing, and governing is an impossibility.
Until recently, I thought politics could not be separated from reality. I assumed politics was reality writ large. I was wrong. Increasingly, politics has nothing to do with reality. That was the case last year when Stefano and Kula tangled; it’s true again with this year’s contest between Reschenthaler and Arnet.
The only reality is these elections produce winners and losers. Likewise, they produce the appearance of the ability to govern, though as the state budget impasse demonstrates, this is a mere illusion.
Politically, we are now in a reality-free zone. Heaven help us because, apparently, we’re beyond the point where we can help ourselves.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown and is the author of two books — “Grand Salute: Stories of the World War II Generation” and “Our People.” He can be reached atgrandsalutebook@gmail.com.