Finally Over

Finally. It's over.

When it comes to government in Virginia, it seems as though there is always an election going on and always negative ads back and forth. The reason is, of course, that there is an election held every single year in the state, and negative ads appear to be the answer for most all candidates.

It's a real shame that we have gotten to a point where it is rare to have the opportunity to actually discuss the issues and policy differences, but instead campaigns anymore are about soundbites and discrediting your opponent, both at the surface level in terms of policy ("such and such will raise your taxes") but more at a deeper level of personal attack.

A lot of people talk about running different kinds of races, about being positive and talking about the issues. But time and again it is shown that negative ads work, so no one is willing to change how they run their own campaigns. And I don't think this is likely to change if we only leave it to candidates to tackle.

What is needed is a consensus of sorts amongst voters who refuse to accept candidates who use personal attacks as a strategy to win an election but instead demand a real debate over the issues that confront us. And as nasty as things have gotten, I can only hope we will reach this point soon.

Finally, this election is over... but of course the Congressional races will start right up....