Has Delaware seen enough of the shallow, out of nowhere candidates? Have we had enough of the empty rhetoric spuming people who if actually elected would bring nothing to an office beyond an illusion of patriotism?

Personally as I have matured, both as a person, and as someone who is interested in politics, I have come to realize what a detriment these types of candidates are, to both the process of electing our leaders, and to the citizens they presume to lead.

When we have these types of candidates running around talking about little more than sound-bite politics, the people of the county, state and nation, are deprived of real discussions about serious issues facing the people of this land.

Does every citizen have a right to run for elected office? Of course they do. Can anyone be elected to office? Again, of course they can. The question is, should everyone run for office? Of course not, nor should some people be elected to office. The argument can be made that our current president did not have the experience to hold the highest office of this nation, and many will argue that he should never have been elected. But if we look back to President Obama’s first campaign, we see a campaign heavy on the rhetoric, and lite on the substance. All of which has brought us to some bad decision-making in my opinion.

We need only look right here in Delaware to find the very same kind of candidates, both on the left and the right, and somewhere in between. Candidates that simply take it in their minds to run for office, or some who are just simple-minded.

These candidates have no idea what it takes to run a campaign, and less of an idea of what will be expected of them if they were to somehow actually be elected. They have either been caught up in the grass-roots fever of the TEA movement, or have been seduced into thinking they have what it takes, by others desperate to build a third-party. Some are puppets on a string, and others are just off the chain.

Some will say, that it is this type of citizen government that has made this nation the greatest and freest nation in the history of the world. To some extent this is true, however, the Founding Fathers were serious men, many did not seek office, but were left no choice by events, but to serve. This being said, can anyone argue that our Founders were not serious and intelligent men? That they were seeking nothing more than simple self glory and power?

Today we see far too many candidates that want only to have a title before their names, and it matters little what the title is. These people will run for any office that opens before them. Be it a council seat, or governor. They bring nothing to the table beyond the desire to be elected.  No ideas beyond regurgitated, deficient, bunkum. And they will run again and again and again.

The people are not served well by this type of candidate. Too many times this type of candidate will do nothing more than run a primary, that does nothing more than impairs  a serious candidate’s ability to run in a general election and win. Too often we hear from these types of candidates that the fight is more important than winning the battle. This is almost always heard from a losing candidate that had no chance of winning. And it is amazing what their definition of a close race is. In their view, a 20/80 loss is a close race.

Because these shallow candidates have no background, and no substance to run on, they rely on tactics of deflection and chaos. They can’t give ideas on the simplest issues, so they become the victim. When challenged to back up some shallow, rhetorical statement with facts, they accuse their challenger of attacking them unfairly. They will cry foul and refuse to answer the questions based on their perception that they have been attacked. You will recognize these shallow candidates by the way they fail to defend their positions.

What this leads to is a confused electorate. When an election is muddied by these types of candidates, then serious candidates are forced in many cases to respond to the most outrageous statements, and in some cases accusations. These shallow candidates have no chance of running on real ideas, because they have none, so they are left to hurl the political equivalent of meadow muffins at their opponents. And in so doing they derail all conversations away from finding solutions to our problems.

The citizens are left at the end of these campaigns to base their votes, not on who is best qualified to serve the people, but on who was best at damage control, and who was best at deflecting and avoiding the questions of real importance.

So yes, I feel that Delaware, and the nation, have had enough of these shallow candidates. We need candidates, and elected officials who have real experience, who see community service as being more than just being in church every Sunday. People who have worked to build on the legacy left to us by our Founders, and not to simply stand upon the shoulders of giants. We need candidates that can articulate real solutions to our problems beyond tough talk and rhetoric. We need candidates that understand that to serve the people, they must first hear the people. We need candidates that bring more to the political table, than the simple-minded desire to have a title before their names.

It will, as always, be up to the voters to weed out these shallow candidates, to see them for what they truly are, shallow, power seeking,  addlepated, merry-andrew. Unfortunately ours is not always the most informed electorate, and far too many times, our voters are taken in by these carny sideshow hucksters. It will be up to the more serious candidates and their supporters to not allow these shallow bottom feeders, to deflect and distract the voters. It will not be easy, but it often take little more than a public display of their tempers and their total lack of knowledge to open the eyes of the voters.

This Saturday December the 7th local talk show host Judy Mangini will be holding her annual “Operation Cookie Drop Off”.  Since 2005   Judy has been baking, collecting and sending cookies to our troop at Christmas to show that they are not forgotten by those they serve and protect.

Each year the event grows in the number of locations and the amount of cookies that Judy and her volunteers are able to send. This year they hope to reach 2,000 dozen, which would be up from last year’s 1,800 dozen.

The local drop off in Sussex County will be at the American Legion Post 28, near Oak Orchard this Saturday Dec. 7th from Noon until four in the afternoon. They always need boxes and packing material as well. For more information please go to the Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/www.operationcookiedropoff.org

Remember, this one is for the troops.

Next we have an announcement of an upcoming event for early next year.  On  May 17th of 2014 the Delaware Oath Keepers will be holding an event at Yoder’s Farm near Greenwood, Delaware. This will be the  Mid Atlantic Oath Keepers, “Rally In Support of Sheriff Jeff Christopher”. Confirmed guest speakers will include Stewart Rhodes, the Founder of Oath Keepers. Other speakers will be Kris Ann Hall who is a radio personality from Florida and constitutional advocate, along with Michael Peroutka, Founder of,  Institute on the Constitution, from Maryland. Sheriff Richard Mack is also a possible guest speaker.

The event will also include break away session with experts in Ham Radio, canning, and combat first-aid.

More information will be forthcoming in the future about cost and how to make reservations.

Finally we here at Delaware Right would like to encourage everyone to remember those who are not as fortunate as we are. Please take the time to drop some change, or more, into the Salvation Army Kettles as we pass on our way into, and out of the malls and stores as we shop this season. It is such a small gesture that can have shop a big impact. There are also other ways to help this season also.

This Saturday after you have dropped off your cookies for the Troops, head down to Hockers Supermarket in Millville and donate food for needy families. The event is known as Thanksgiving at Christmas and will be hosted by another local radio personality Jared Morris for Delaware 105.9. They will be broadcasting live, and taking food donations for local families who may not be able to have the type of Christmas dinner that you and the rest of us are able to. So please help where you can.

It seems as though the Democrats have found another single issue candidate to run for the 37th Representative District, of the state of Delaware, for 2014.

While speaking at a meeting of the Eastern Sussex Democrats at a local Lewes restaurant, Democrat Paulette Rappa let it be known that she will seek the election to the 37th Representative seat in Dover, currently held by lifetime Georgetown resident Ruth Briggs-King.

Mrs. Rappa, who move to the area permanently ten years ago, from New Jersey, when her husband retired, defines herself as a mobile homeowner, and says that there are serious side effects to Senate Bill 33, this is the legislation that forces land owners to justify rent increases. Mrs. Rappa says that she is in a unique position to represent these issues to legislators.

Well considering that her husband is the president of the Pott Nets  Homeowners Association, I guess that you could say that she does have a single perspective from which to look at these issues.

With Mrs. Rappa as the Democrat candidate, it would seem as though the Democrats are once again being represented in the race for the 37th by a single issue candidate. Of course Mrs. Rappa states that she will also work towards increasing public transportation in the area. Does this mean we would see even more buses riding the roads of Sussex County with two people on them? Is anyone surprised that a person who would be in favor of impinging the rights of land owners, would also be in favor of expanding a failed public transit system at a higher cost to tax payers?

Mrs. Rappa points out that due to our aging population, that there is a need for transportation directed at the elderly. We await to see if Mrs. Rappa has any ideas on how to pay for this increase in services. She also points out that seniors are being forced to work longer into their golden years due to the economic recession, now we could have the debate about who caused that recession, but I will leave that to the candidates. However her point seems to be that since they are working longer, this can lead to stress and health issues, that require more healthcare practitioners in the area. It’s too bad that so many people feel that her party of choice will be to blame for fewer healthcare practitioners, resulting from the Affordable Healthcare Act, or as it is commonly known, Obama care. Which will also lead to higher medical cost for all. Talk about stress!

Seeing as Mrs. Rappa was a High School teacher for eleven years, it is not surprising that she would want to talk about education.  She says, “We can’t talk about jobs if we don’t talk about education”, really? Because, while education is extremely important to young people finding jobs, we have a lot of unemployed adults around here as well. I’m sure that they would feel differently about when we could have a conversation about jobs. We could talk about reducing regulations and fees that hinder the expansion and creation of small businesses that are the number one private employers of people, second only to the state itself.

But it comes as no surprise that someone who spent eleven years working within the system would feel the need to enlarge the system. Mrs. Rappa proposes creating a four-year college or medical school in Sussex County, and while this is an admirable goal, one has to again wonder whether or not Mrs. Rappa has any idea how to fund such a large-scale undertaking, or is she merely pandering?

No, it would seem that Mrs. Rappa is simply a one issue candidate, that being mobile homeowners stripping land owners of their rights through more legislation, and is only mouthing Democrat talking points on healthcare, education and transportation.

It also seems that Mrs. Rappa fears going head to head with Rep. Ruth Briggs-King when she said she is optimistic about her candidacy,  “She’s going to be occupied in
session from January to June,” Rappa said.” “She said she plans to campaign hard during that time.”

Sounds to me that Mrs. Rappa plans to avoid having to debate Rep. Briggs-King for as long as possible, and also seems to be deriding the fact that Rep. Briggs-King will be “occupied” working for the people of the 37th from January to June.

What Mrs. Rappa fails to see is that in her statement she has drawn attention to the experience that Rep. Briggs-King brings to the table. In her time as the Representative for the 37th District she has earned a reputation as someone who works hard for her constituents. She actually reads the bills that come before her, not all our legislators can make that claim. She has also earned a reputation for being  tenacious when defending her views.

However her tenacity does not hinder her from working to find compromise on issues in order to find the best solution to difficult problems, such as the gulf between the land owners and the renters in the mobile home parks within her district. While the compromise certainly did not make everyone happy, and certainly made many unhappy, it was the best solution to a difficult situation at the time. And now we see that the mobile homeowners are not satisfied and have found another candidate to carry their banner.

Rep. Briggs-King however is far more than a single issue candidate, just recently she took part in a trip to Taiwan, and met with the Vice-President of that country and others to build on a trade partnership that would strengthen Delaware, and Sussex County’s export market with Taiwan. In 2012, Delaware’s exports to Taiwan reached  $96.5 million, making Taiwan Delaware’s 13th largest export market. It is this type of vision and hard work that makes it possible to talk about creating jobs here at home, a discussion that Mrs. Rappa seems to believe we can’t have at this time.

It looks as though we can expect much the same type of campaign in the 37th District that we saw last time around, the single issue voters will rattle their cans about lot rents, and the main stream voters will again recognize that Ruth Briggs-King, brings her years of experience in the real-estate industry, along with her lifelong knowledge of Sussex County, and her willingness to look beyond rhetoric and politics to the table, to find real ways of creating jobs and building the state’s economy to a level that will then allow the state and the county to work on solving other issues such as transportation and education.

You see, Rep. Ruth Briggs-King, being a good old Sussex County girl, knows you can’t put the cart before the horse. She knows you can’t discuss creating new and expanded government services until you find a way to pay for them. This means you have to grow the private sector first, and then you will most likely notice that those other issues will take care of themselves through supply and demand.

This, I feel, will end up being the telling difference between these two candidates, one sees government as the solution, while Ruth Briggs – King believes that it is the people of this state and county who will be the real solutions to our needs and troubles.