BY RUSSELL TURNER
ARM CHAIR QUARTERBACKS
It is very easy for humans to get involved in a football game. I have seen once sensible adults jump out of their chairs and scream at the television if their team doesn’t do what they think is right. I have found that it is a much easier thing to offer advice when you are not in the fur ball of the moment. There are always variables that the people on the scene have to deal with. Without exception the arm chair quarterback simply doesn’t have all of the information. At least in a football game most of the time no permanent damage comes from the sports enthusiast, he might throw a beer can at his television in the heat of passion but it is him who has to pay the price for a new television. Sadly there are far too many arm chair quarterbacks stirring things up in the political arena.
Politics has the ability to bring out the best and worst in people, too many people are wanting to get involved in high profile events when their best course of action would be to keep their mouths shut. In the recent shooting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the local authorities and Governor Scott Walker had the duty to maintain order and deal with a volatile situation. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton could not resist chiming in on the problem by implying that the ugly situation in Wisconsin was at least partly caused by a lack of respect for certain citizens by law enforcement . Understandably Governor Walker was outraged, her comments only made a bad situation worse. All of us remember the recent riots in Missouri, Florida and Baltimore. Each one of those situation were made worse by our commander in chief spouting off premature judgments when he didn’t have all of the facts. I do not like this kind of uninformed outside influence in the affairs of communities they know nothing about.
I see another trend in local politics here in my state of Oklahoma. In the past races for the state legislature, most people had the decency to leave the people alone in their respective districts to make a decision on whom they would elect to represent them in the state legislature. At one time the voters would make an effort to know the candidates and judge them on their abilities. At one time I was the county chairman of my county; it was my policy not to endorse any candidate in a primary. I would let the primary process play itself out then support the victor. Today that policy has disappeared, we have what I call Rock Star politicians who are endorsing candidates throughout our state, and they are doing this as a favor to some consultant or advancing their own agenda. They are doing this with no regard to the issues that the people in the districts are facing, nor are they making an attempt to know the values of the other candidates. While this practice in the short run may help them win an election, in the long run their actions will cause good candidates not to run and it will fracture the party structure. It is one thing to have to fight the opposition party but it is another to fight your own party. Just remember being a quarterback is important, but he needs a team to win.
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