Saturday, November 11, 2006

tom creighton says that voters in lancaster can’t think

I should begin this post with a little debate technique known as poisoning the well. I’m sure that some would ask if I myself am guilty of the problem I am about to criticize. The fact is that I have only once in my life voted a straight party ticket. I’m sure some of my Democratic friends won’t like that but I have voted for Democrats, Republicans and independents of every stripe. I am a proud ticket splitter who comes from a family full of ticket splitters.

That is why I am so bothered by some (I mean all) of the election results in this county and one person’s comments in particular. Republican State representative Tom Creighton (and his party) seems to take the voters of the county for granted.

“I belong to the right party. It wasn’t a race between me and my opponent. It was a race between a Republican and a Democrat.”
Did he mean “correct” or “right wing?”

How unfortunate that the voters of this county have such an incredible inability to think for themselves. Am I elitist? Is this just sour grapes? Maybe I am and maybe it is.

The problem with Creighton’s statement is that it’s true. I have seen exactly what he’s talking about. This county is full of people who will listen to what you have to say, agree with you and promise you their vote until they find out that you’re a Democrat. There are even more who start at party affiliation and don’t go past it. They have reduced their vote to being little more than a choice between Coke and Pepsi.

In the Intell article on Creighton’s race his opponent Lee Heffner mentioned an incident with a voter who complained about the pay raise. The voter, apparently, ended up not voting for Heffner because Lee is a Democrat. The voter was upset about the pay raise and still either voted for Creighton or just didn’t vote at all in the race simply because of party affiliation.

I just have to ask, how do people expect to get decent representation when the only thing necessary for their vote is having a little “r” next to your name?

On Tuesday Lancaster Republicans voted like we have a parliamentary system. Too bad we don’t, instead of a second term for Governor Rendell we could be on the verge of Prime Minister Sturla.

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