By HARRY HURLEY
Political Columnist
Now that the 2019 General Election is behind us, it’s time for some sobering reflection and soul searching going forward. The entire election process in our region is broken.
The campaign tactics have disintegrated to new lows and are getting worse with each passing election cycle. What good people will ever want to put their name on the ballot in the future? To do so, you risk having your entire life being destroyed.
Blatant lies and thin representations masquerade as the truth. Candidates no longer tell us what they will do if they are elected. Instead, they spend many thousands of dollars destroying the character of their opponent.
The political contests were disgusting by any standard of measure. In Legislative District 1, the Republican candidates Michael Testa, Jr., Erik Simonsen and Antwan McClellan were savaged by some of the most racist, ethnic and despicable tactics ever employed.
Testa was the victim of blatant ethnic prejudice and vicious character assassination. Testa was smeared both personally and professionally. Even Testa’s legendary Father, Michael Testa, Sr. was unnecessarily attacked during this filthy dirty campaign season. It should be completely out of bounds to attack family members.
McClellan was personally attacked and the victim of a racist attack, so filthy in nature that Governor Phil Murphy and Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver condemned their fellow Democrats for waging this unconscionable tactic.
In a Democrat mailer, they blackened McClellan’s face darker and placed him in an outrageous “Aunt Jemima” silhouette. Sadly, not a single NAACP Chapter condemned the campaign flier, simply in order to protect their fellow Democrats.
So, you can now easily see, that even though this is such a racially sensitive moment in all of American history, that Democrat politics came before people doing the right thing, even the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People failed the test.
This is undeniably representative of our present state of politics in our region and in America. When McClellan was racially attacked, every person of good faith should have risen and condemned those responsible. Almost no one did.
In District 2, Atlantic County Freeholder John Risley and former Brigantine Mayor Phil Guenther were also eviscerated. The lies and half truths were stunning. They were viciously attacked with seven figures worth of poison vitriol.
Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson was repeatedly called a racist. The relentless attack was that he led a culture of “Systemic Racism” within Atlantic County government.
This is one of the most blatantly dishonest political attacks ever made in an Atlantic County election. The charge was patently false, yet an unscrupulous Democrat repeated it again and again and again.
Once again, the NAACP refused to denounce it, because they chose instead to protect a fellow Democrat politician, instead of representing all of the ideals that their organization professes to support.
There were no profiles in courage to award during this filthy election season. And, sadly, I believe that absolutely no lessons will have been learned.
Unless something dramatic occurs, that I don’t see happening any time soon, the elections will continue to spiral to even lower levels going forward.
The worst thing has happened over the past 20 years. These contemptible campaign tactics have actually been rewarded with success on election day. Why would the candidates of tomorrow stop doing what has worked time-and-time again?
The short answer is, they won’t. Not only should you readily expect this to continue, it’s actually going to get worse and worse.
Just like bad reality television that you can’t take your eyes off; The prevaricators must keep making more and more shocking pronouncements to keep the attention span of the viewer.
The worst allegations typically come from thinly disguised outside groups, who maintain that they are not working directly with any candidate.
This was the case in Southern New Jersey this year, with the exception of Susan Korngut who directly made the (specious) incendiary racial allegations against Levinson. It was perhaps the dirtiest and most mean-spirited attack ever made in our region’s political history. In a macabre sort of way, at least Korngut owned it and didn’t hide behind a Political Action Committee advertisement to do her dirty work. This should not be misconstrued as compliment, because it’s not.
There is only one way that the present climate of politics by destruction will ever change. It all comes down to the electorate. Some year, if a campaign spends millions of dollars and scorches the earth with their opponent and the electorate rejects them; Then, and only then will this begin to change.
I remain an eternal optimist. I believe that America’s best days are still ahead. However, the present atmosphere in our country threatens everything going forward. This manifests itself at so many different levels.
The national media is out-of-control. They are terminal with an incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. It is the driving force of everything that they do. This permeates every aspect of our society.
Here’s a recent case in point. The incredibly brave and skilled military operation to bring ISIS founder and the World’s # 1 Terrorist, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to justice.
Rather then credit our military Special Operations heroes, The Washington Post screaming banner headline read, “Austere Religious Scholar Dies at 48.”
This is so sick, that it almost defies gravity. The reason the Jeffrey Bezos-owned Washington Post did this, was because they can’t bring themselves to credit President Donald Trump for anything.
Just look back at the credit the national media gave to Barack Obama at the time of the killing of Osama Bin Laden. This despite the fact, that they called Obama from a golf course to watch the killing.
You don’t have to believe me about this. Look at the famous photo, with Obama sitting at the end of the table at a chair that sits lower. This is the iconic photo with Hillary Clinton gasping with her hand over her mouth. I think that Obama made this the official White House photo to finish-off Clinton once and for all.
Multiple sources have have confirmed that Obama had not changed out of his golf clothes when he entered to Situation Room. None of this ever stopped the national, pro-Obama media from gushing all over him, practically crediting Obama with firing the kill shot himself.
Ironically, on the top of their newspaper daily masthead (slogan) reads: “The Washington Post, Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
Until President Trump, the newspaper had not had a slogan in its 142-year existence. Bob Woodward actually coined this phrase more than 45 years ago.
This is the degree the Democrats will go to discredit Republicans and especially President Trump. Make no mistake about it, the media is largely responsible for many of America’s current problems.
Only the inherent power of the people can change this. It must happen, before it’s too late.
Harry Hurley is the president of Harry Hurley Consulting and Communications, LLC. He hosts the daily talk radio program “Hurley in the Morning” 6-10 a.m., weekdays on Townsquare Media, WPG Talk Radio 104.1 FM & 1450 AM, where he also serves as the senior programming consultant. Hurley is performing national fill-in, on-air talent work for FOX News Radio on their nationally syndicated platforms. He has hosted various television programs in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware and is the editor and publisher of his news and information website,www.harryhurley.com. Send comments to HarryHurley@aol.com
Harry Hurley is the president of Harry Hurley Consulting and Communications, LLC. He hosts the daily talk radio program “Hurley in the Morning” 6-10 a.m., weekdays on Townsquare Media, WPG Talk Radio 104.1 FM & 1450 AM, where he also serves as the senior programming consultant. Send comments to HarryHurley@aol.com
