Hitting a new high, or low, in cynicism

Next week, my community and several neighboring communities will have a very good idea who our next state house representative will be.

We won't know who will head to Atlanta in January just yet. A runoff is the most likely result of Tuesday's elections.

Four people are running. I know three of them. Until the election, I'd never heard of the 4th person.

I had opinions about the three I knew prior to the campaign. Not sharing those, except to say it was positive opinions.

Then, they qualified for the election.

My opinion of the three tanked. Hit the bottom and continued accelerating. The fourth person also took an immediate reputation hit.

At the same time, I continue to have the same opinion of the three I do know. A positive opinion of them.

Yet the very act of them saying "I want to hold an elected position in the Georgia General Assembly" was enough for me to believe they are fools, idiots, morons, etc. Pick your negative adjective. Their decision to run for office was enough for me to start looking at them askance. It was enough for me to believe they really can't be trusted.

Amazing. Here I am casting aspersions on someone simply because they want to hold state office.

Not amazing. I lean on history and the experience I have with politicians. These tell me that anyone who gets into office is going to start compromising, caving in, making poor decisions and in general falling victim to the maxim "Power corrupts."

As the first campaign draws to a close and we look for the runoff, I find myself desperately wishing for another candidate. But whom? No one. It doesn't matter who qualified for the election. I'd have the same opinion.

Cynical. Jaded. Burned. Yeah, that's me. But I go back to another maxim, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."