Needless negativity

On its Web site, Polsteins Home and Beyond offers its rendition of one of the most traditional symbols of the holiday season: a Hillary Clinton nutcracker that will doom any walnut in its vicinity with the stainless steel teeth secured inside its legs.\nAn ad distributed by Mitt Romney’s campaign and supporters asks viewers “What do we really know about Mike Huckabee and his record on law and order?” and goes on to display a Monopoly\n“Get Out of Jail Free” card.\nA TV spot produced by the Fred Thompson campaign, set against a black backdrop, accuses Romney of being a (gasp!) liberal, as a death knell sounds in the distance.\nElection years bring out the best in this country, don’t you think?\nWhile I’ll admit to being a big fan of the “Saturday Night Live” Will Ferrell-Darrell Hammond debates that introduced\nour country to “strategery” and “lockboxes,” sometimes the mockery and mudslinging that goes on during election season really makes me want to move to Canada. And judging from the despairing sighs I hear from friends and family every time an election commercial\nairs during a bowl game, I’m not alone in this sentiment.\nStill, before we all apply for our visas and start saying “eh,” we should probably\nconsider the upside of this madness. While backstabbing and defamation are immature and completely unnecessary, at least we have the right to express whatever feelings we may have about a particular candidate without having to fear for our lives.\nIn the past week, as election-related crises have unfolded across the globe, it has become disturbingly apparent to what extent politics and institutional ideals can be mutilated beyond recognition and used to support agendas of violence and intolerance. Only a few hours into 2008, for example, about 50 people seeking refuge in a church were burned alive because of Kenya’s voting irregularities.\nIn Pakistan, officials postponed the national elections, originally scheduled for Jan. 8, until Feb. 18 because of the unrest that followed the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister\nwho was seen as both a symbol of modernity and a challenge to the current regime.\nIn the United States, we pride ourselves in being able to tolerate each other’s differences, and we condemn the horrific violence that often tarnishes politics abroad. Still, we need to remind ourselves that complacency itself is dangerous\nfor our nation, and we need to learn from these alarm bells abroad not to carry our political persuasions so far that we see opposing camps as mortal enemies. There will always be winners and losers, but a victory for one side should never translate into the detriment of the other.\nSo in election ’08, tone down the low blows, OK? Although most people’s moms say this to them when they are 5 years old and have scribbled “My sister is stoopid” all over the walls in crayon, apparently the politicos of today need some refreshing, so I’ll say it again:\nSeriously, grow up, guys.