I Have Had ENOUGH of This

I have had it with Jimmy Braswell.

Braswell, who lost in the House of Delegates primary as a Republican, posted these "insightful" comments on his blog the last few days.

First:

There is the issue of hypocrisy. There are certain local candidates who hide the fact that they are without a formal education, yet they continue to preach that education is the pathway to success.

Second:

Steve Schuh was one of the best qualified of all of the candidates. He was the only Republican with a college education and substantial experience. I am sure he will do a good job as delegate.

These are not so veiled shots at Delegate-elect Nic Kipke, who Braswell has had a problem with from the get-go. And I won't stand for it.

Braswell is of the attitude that if you have not gone to college, you aren't smart. Let me tell you that some of the brightest, most insightful people I know did not go to college. Some of the dumbest I know have advanced degrees.

Here is some of the back story with Braswell. Once upon a time, my wife and I were big supporters of Braswell's campaign. He asked my wife to serve as his campaign manager. Several times, he was going to quit the race because he didn't want to put in the effort and didn't think he could win. And several times, we convinced him to stay in the race.

Right before the Lincoln Day dinner, he decided to make a change at Campaign Manager. He still wanted us to do all of the work and heavy lifting, but wanted to give credit to his new campaign manager, "the guy I met at Taco Bell", he said. That was a revelation in character to say the least. Needless to say, that was the end of that for us.

Braswell continued his campaign, and managed to burn bridges with just about the entire Republican Party. He was one of the few people to get me and Don Dwyer to agree on something (which is miraculous) about how we weren't real keen on Braswell anymore. Braswell angered just about everybody, and pretty much showed me that despite all of his fancy schmancy education, he was not qualified to be a public official.

Braswell's attitude that only college educated people should serve in public office is off-putting and insulting. That's especially true when you consider how many of the people in our district did not get the same educational opportunities that a lot of us were fortunate to have. And a lot of them made the most of the opportunities they did get, while some got an education but cannot put it to good use. And unfortunately, this attitude already reared its ugly head once this year in a Republican primary election.

Incidentally Braswell, who has already decided he is running again, had both Fleckenstein and Reynolds yard signs right before the election. While I have no problems with either man, the fact that a "Republican" candidate who wants to run again in four years publicly supported these candidates is slightly problematic for his future as a Republican candidate and insulting to all three men who represented our party in the General Election.

But I will not stand for his attitude that people who did not get the chance to go to college are dumb. I can't imagine how he could have served his constituents with such contempt for the people of his district.