We must be on the eve of a whole new era of bipartisan cooperation - or - Why I hate politics part 6,240

I moderate comments here on FWIW. That means, when a person stumbles across an article here, and is roused to new heights of partisan fury, or tries to insert a spam link for fake designer handbags, or both, the comment typed out by said person goes into a queue. Periodically, I will look at the comments that have accumulated in the queue, passing some through, but spiking others. Most comments, published or not, are made anonymously.

Ordinarily, since I am a very delicate person by nature, and a practicing coward besides, I 'flush' quite a few comments, including (I hope) all the overtly libelous ones. There's a lot of anonymous anger online.

During election season, I tend to ease up a little, letting some comments slip by that I ordinarily would not. But, not too long ago, I drew the line at one comment -- it was harshly critical of a judicial candidate, but then morphed into an accusation that Cook County Board President (and Cook County Democratic Party Chair) Toni Preckwinkle 'needs to go' because she panders to Trump.

Whatever one's view of President Preckwinkle, I thought the accusation was ridiculous. Surely, no Democratic politician, and certainly not the chair of the local Democratic Party, could possibly be a Trump fan. Right?

And then... then I started noticing something... a pattern in the parade of political commericials vomited across my television screen every evening. Have you noticed it also?

Superficially, every candidate, for every office, is running against Trump. A host of congressional candidates want to go to Washington to fight Trump. But it's not just those running for the House or Senate -- candidates seeking employment in Springfield plan to fight Trump there. Trump seemingly lurks around every corner, in the shadows of every lamppost; he's skulking in the gangway, hiding under your bed. For an old guy, he sure gets around. But -- never fear! -- every candidate promises to fight him, wherever he may be found.

Except... all these candidates running commercials... they all have opponents (otherwise, they wouldn't need to be spending money on TV commercials)... and all these opposing candidates say those Trump-fighting-stalwarts are really secret allies of Trump: They're taking money from ICE contractors; they're funded by MAGA supporters and Trump donors. Well, the candidates thus accused don't take these slanders lying down; they, or their absolutely-not-coordinating PAC backers run new commercials saying it's really the other guys who are taking money from ICE contractors, etc.

Trump isn't paying attention to Illinois these days; he long ago dismissed us a 'blue state pesthole' (OK, yes, I cleaned that one up -- I told you I was delicate). But maybe Trump should reconsider: Apparently, no matter who's elected, even if they promised, in their own commercials, to put horseshoes in their boxing gloves, they're really just hankering to be Trump's buddies. We must be on the verge of a new Era of Good Feelings, one our country has not experienced since James Monroe was in the White House -- lifelong hyper-partisan Democrats are all just looking to get elected on false pretenses, whereupon they will throw off their disguises, and show their true MAGA devotion.

What a load of road apples.

And yet... that's what the poltical commercials insist.

Do the politicians... and their consultants... really think we are this stupid?

No wonder voter participation keeps going down.

Tomorrow is Election Day. It's too late to get better candidates... or better commercials. But maybe it's time for people to take back the political process from those who think we're all idiots.