2010 POLITICS SHOW WHY THIS IS CALLED THE SILLY SEASON..........

With just ten days to go to the voting for midterm Election 2010, and the intensive, incendiary, nature of much of this year's politicking, I offer my educated insights and analysis of what is right and that which is wrong, and recommendations we as a country need to seriously consider to address the necessity of political reform of our campaign system.  As a lifelong, and undergraduate student of government, politics, polling, and history, I can tell you that in the United States elections in the midterm year of virtually all Presidents, go against the political party in power.  The only three exceptions to that outcome in the past century being in 1934, 1998, and in 2002.  This being the twenty-sixth midterm election since 1910, means the outcome has been 23-3, against the incumbent President's party, which is more than 88% percent of the time.  So it is no big shakes that President Obama and Democrats are in a tough midterm election campaign.  However, that does not explain or justify the lengths this year's candidates and their campaigns have gone to villify misrepresent, or disqualify, their political opponents.  There is a mean spiritedness to 2010 election environment rarely matched in modern history.  The latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal Poll, shows that 32% of the country believe we are going the right direction; 59% say we are on the wrong track; and  27% feel Democrats are the best choice to take the country forward in Congress, while 23% believe the Republicans will; 16% respond that either party will, and 31% say neither party will.  The economic woes that persist which are now three years with us, is driving much of that response, as  President Obama's approval rating stands at 47% in that same poll, whereas, President Reagan's approval rating going into the 1982 midterm elections stood at 41%.  So politics as well as serious voter dissatisfaction with the slowness of change and a turnaround in the economy, is driving this election season.  The unwielding, and surreptitious, use of campaign money is also clouding the 2010 Election in ways that are troubling.  The Citizens United Decision by the US Supreme Court earlier this year, not only negated the McCain-Feingold  Campaign Finance Law, it took so many years to pass and put into effect, but opened the floodgates to uncontrolled campaign spending from corporate and union sources, wealthly individuals, and supposedly, even foreign countries.   The latest expenditure reports show that the US Chamber of Commerce has contributed $28 million; the Crossroads USA -Crossroads GPS groups, led by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie and their colleagues, $27 million; the AFSCME Union, $23 Million; as well as millions of dollars more, by the Tea Party, with Sacramento's Sal Russo, and the Tea Party Express,aising and spending more than $8 million.  And what does the money provide the American people ?      A barrage of media advertisements, attacking each other, and not as much educating or enlightening the voters, as putting mounds of cash in the pockets of political consultants, advertising agencies, and television, radio, newspaper, and internet, media companies.  While it is true that there is widespread anger, frustration, and anxiety amidst the electorate, the unbridled expenditure of campaign cash that only serves to polarize and make the political environment more hostile, does not serve the common good.  We must find a practical, constitutional, way of reigning in and reforming campaign finance, if we ever expect the process to really serve the common good of free, and fair, election campaigns where the issues, not attacks ads, and personality politics prevail, to muddy the waters and clog the system of government.  Here in California a record setting, $200 million plus Governor's Race and vituperative  US Senate campaign, alert all of us as Americans and good citizens, just how great the need for reform of our current campaign system is.  In this final week and a half before Election Day November 2, let us pray that voters will approach their solemn duty in our democracy to choose leaders with sound minds, and selfless hearts.  Who have the best interests of their constituents and the nation, foremost before them, so as to serve, to govern, and to address, the vital concerns facing all of us, as Americans, who put our country first, not politics as usual, or special interests, or narrow self serving agendas; knowing that it makes a difference whether you vote or not.....VOTE BY MAIL, or AT YOUR POLLING PLACE, November 2..........In The Spirit Of Liberty, Freedom, Fairness, And Patriotism For The Common Good Of The Governance Of  The United States Of America,   Fr.  Troy