RE: McElhannon Letter about Speaker Richardson

An open letter from Joel McElhannon regarding Speaker Richardson’s announcement was put up on PeachPundit, and there is a piece of it I wanted to discuss here:

The vast majority of arm chair activists, pundits, editorialists, and bloggers should do themselves a favor and just shut up.

You have never had the courage or ability to hold public office, so you have no concept of the pressures those with that courage and ability must endure. After dealing with legitimate constituent problems, crazy calls at all hours about dogs barking and obnoxious neighbors, election challenges, political forces pushing them in every direction, and the pressure all of this puts on their family, to have to endure your ridiculous rants and stunningly uninformed cheap shots is a special kind of hell. Spare us your hyperventilating.

Maybe I’m one of the exceptions when he says the “vast majority”. I certainly hope so. Because unlike a great deal of my counterparts both in blogging and within the Libertarian Party, I’ve done something over the last few months that I think qualifies me for an intelligent discussion on this. I actually ran for political office. Yes, I lost. I’ll even admit that I lost pretty handily. But my name WAS on a ballot, and that DOES separate me from the “vast majority of arm chair activists, pundits, editorialists, and bloggers”.

Largely, I agree with McElhannon’s letter. The basic point of it being that we should allow Glenn Richardson, the man, time to heal and work through his own issues before discussing our issues with Glenn Richardson, Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives.

I just object to being categorized as nothing more than an “armchair quarterback” when I at least put my own skin in the game. It takes a great deal of courage to be willing to step out and accept scorn and mockery for daring to challenge the political system, which I proved I have. It takes a great deal of honor to be able to accept defeat on the political battlefield with grace, as I believe I have done.

And yes, I believe that has given me a great deal more insight into the political process than I had when I started this site nearly 10 months ago. That campaign opened my eyes to some things and revealed some lessons I still need to learn. I know from off the record conversations that there are those in many arenas who are grateful that I ran and can now write with a renewed view on exactly what politicians face. I walked a half a mile in their shoes, and I now know better what it is like to be on that side of the desk. Hopefully in 2011 I will walk the next half mile, and fully realize what life is like on that side of the desk.

But even until then, I know I have benefited as a man from my campaign, and I hope this blog, my business, benefits from the insight I gained during that campaign. Hopefully my readers can also benefit from having a voice not usually available, and hopefully my city, my county, and my State can benefit from having an active member of the community willing to discuss the issues in an open and transparent manner.

After all, like Mr. McElhannon stated “From my perspective, the vast majority of elected officials in this state, from both parties, are good human beings who are simply trying to promote the principles and policies in which they believe.”