By Bonnie Adams
As a fan of reading historical works, I often think of how lucky I am to be a woman in this country, and in this century. It may not be perfect all the time but compared to what generations before me had to endure, it's pretty darn good.
One of those things that I can do now, thanks a lot of tenacious women before me, is vote. Some years are more difficult than others to decide which is lesser of two evils but ultimately I always do what I consider my civic duty each election day.
Every election season the candidates promise to take the high road but, of course, they, and their fans, no matter who they are, slip right down into the mud. And they have plenty of company down there – Democrats, Republicans, Tea Parties and an assortment of others- who just like to trebuchet all sorts of insults at the opposing candidate.
For months we have been hearing critics slam Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren over her alleged Cherokee ties. Vice President Joe Biden can's seem to go out in public without misspeaking. Vice President Candidate Paul Ryan is now under fire for misstating how fast he ran in a 1990 marathon. Dog lovers can's decide who is worse – Gov. Mitt Romney for putting his dog in a crate on the roof of his car during a family vacation or President Barack Obama for allegedly eating dog meat when he lived in Indonesia as a child.
But the latest “controversy,” courtesy of Democratic National Chairman (DNC) John Walsh, has just reached a new low.
Just prior to the DNC convention, Walsh mocked Sen. Scott Brown's TV ads which showed him ?doing chores around the house, including folding laundry. That earned Brown, Walsh said in a tweet, the title of “honorary girl.”
Walsh then apologized, sort of. Brown defended his laundry skills.
Great. It's bad enough we get to hear about everyone's “dirty laundry” now we have to argue about their clean laundry too? ?And what is wrong with being a girl anyways, honorary or otherwise?
I can only imagine what all those brave suffragettes would think if they saw the state of American politics nowadays. Of course, there has always been bad behavior but in their day, they only had to read about it in the newspapers. They didn's have to see the same endless commercials every time they watched TV, and they didn's have to go online and be assaulted with political propaganda. And they didn's have to worry about getting into arguments with their friends on Facebook or Twitter about a candidate's laundry skills.
And they certainly didn's have to worry every time they answered their phone that it would not be a family member or friend but rather a cheery “robo-call” from the likes of Brown, Warren, or some other political character. I haven's gotten any yet but I know it's only a matter of time.
Again, I am glad to be a woman in this day and age. And I am happy that when I go to vote Nov. 6 no one will be protesting my right to do so. But I sure can's wait until Nov. 7!
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