ELAINE HARRIS SPEARMAN COMMENTARY: The truth behind political labels
Alabama residents are in the same “Catch 22” that many people are in across this country. It is imperative that we vote, but for whom?
Candidates at every level, are lacking in their appeal to a sense of “they are running for office for the good of the people.” We are all desperate for candidates who are running for public office who really want to make a difference in the lives of people living in the state, who want a better life, and inclusion in the government that is in charge of our lives.
We in Alabama have an incumbent governor who for all intents and purposes, is running against President Joe Biden. For as bad as I thought the governor is, what with black face and all, I had come to conclude that she was the “lesser of the two evils” that are opposing candidates.
Now as we look at this governor snubbing the president upon a visit to Troy to a plant that assembles Javelin anti-tank missiles, I am not so sure.
The incumbent pointed out her position on women/gender in one of her recent political ads. It is a sad testament to someone who wants to remain in office. Former President Barack Obama mentioned the difference that could be made by women in high office. He could not have foreseen the candidates that would campaign for public office after his statement.
He envisioned coupling toughness with caring and being multi-taskers. Not these candidates who declare themselves “Trump conservatives” who will build the “Trump Wall” if elected. What are these candidates thinking?
The matters that these candidates are trying to make issues just don’t hold water. Say what you want ladies, Trump did not win the election and a large part of America saw through who he is and what he stands for.
The candidates themselves have made gender an issue in many of the campaigns. As I see it, gender does not matter in the Senate or governor races. There is no need for more Kellyanne Conways and Margo Greens in the public light. Candidate Lindy Blanchard is a throwback to both.
People are being lumped into groups and given labels. No thought is given to what it means, or if it is true.
Many people are sick and tired of having labels thrown at them as if it is to be equated with something awful or dastardly.
When I looked up the legal definition in Blacks Law Dictionary for “liberal;” the definition is “Free in giving; generous; not restrained or narrowminded; not literal or strict.”
The candidates running for office under the Trump banner have made every attempt to turn the word “liberal” into a dirty word, bordering on profane. If they would acknowledge that not being narrowminded is a hallmark of fair and honest thinking; they would make for better elected officials.
There was no legal definition for conservative. I can see that because it is whatever a candidate, particularly Republican, wants it to be. This is illustrative in branding oneself a “Christian Conservative.” There are also “Christian Liberals.”
The definition for “conservative” was found in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. The definition: “Favoring of preservation of the existing order and to regard, proposals for change with distrust.”
There are other definitions that depend upon how the word is used such as conservative suit, not showy or flashy; prudent, as in a conservative estimate.
These definitions were not created by the candidates who are polluting the airwaves with bad political ads that express who they are. The candidates offer nothing that can help Alabama lift itself up from the bottom rung of everything that makes a state livable, or desirable.
“It’s all about the South,” is not just slogan for a fast-food company. It really is all about the South when you go to a website Make My Move where you can get up to $10,000 for relocating to a north Alabama region. It will be distributed the first year of living in “Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield and Tuscumbia areas.”
Don’t become fearful that cash incentives are being offered to people to move to Alabama. It will take that and more. The candidates who are expressing their sorry views, hatefulness and “ignorance,” as one California representative called it, make national and international news. Once people hear and see the people aspiring to public office, the response has been, “you couldn’t pay me to move there.” Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas are on the list.
Now the response to moving to a state where the candidates have no platform for the people of the state is “you have to pay me to move there.”
Elaine Harris Spearman, Esq., a Gadsden native, is an attorney and is the retired legal advisor to the comptroller of the City of St. Louis. The opinions expressed are her own.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: ELAINE HARRIS SPEARMAN COMMENTARY: The truth behind political labels
