by Judith Gayle | Political Waves
With mere days left before the midterms, corporate funding for political ads has done more than smear and distort: it’s bedazzled. In Nevada, where Majority Leader Harry Reid is fighting for his political life against Bagger Sharron Angle, televised electorate pounding broke records. In Las Vegas, 1,200 ads played out across local television screens in a single day: some 10 hours of political advertisement. It’s been estimated that by the time this election is done, $3 billion will have been spent to secure our individual votes.
Those of you who thought your vote didn’t mean anything might want to reconsider. Every once in awhile, I read about how my vote has been so mugged by gerrymander and districting that it’s not worth owning, but this week it’s worth 3 billion dollars. Maybe democracy is in better shape than we think. Or not.
Consider the race in Nevada. You may remember Reid’s opponent as the ‘chicken lady’ who, hyperventilating over the inevitability of ‘Obamacare,’ suggested that people might barter with their doctor for services as was done in the Good Old Days. This was the quintessential moment when the public turned to examine Tea Bagger candidates more closely, sniffing to see if they all had a case of The Crazy™ — a condition that had seemed contained in places like West Virginia and Alaska prior to this election, mostly confined to FOX News true believers — and wondering just how absurd the dialog might get.
A lot worse, it turns out. Sharron Angle has spoken of her hopes to ax the EPA, the Department of Education and the VA, declaring them unnecessary expenditures of big government. If she loses this race, it won’t be because she wasn’t mega-financed or, nose held, embraced by Republican leadership. It will be because her suggestion that Second Amendment rights might be necessary to “take Harry Reid out” is beyond the pale. If she ultimately loses, it will be because the radicalism of her proposals is intolerable to most Americans. And if she loses by more than just a point or two, thank your favorite god and lucky stars, because it will mean that the American electorate is not as childish and one-dimensional as this season has suggested.