Column by Wesley Robinson

Call me crazy, but I believe in the democratic process — but day by day, it seems like, I get another reason to loathe the process.

I tend to give a longer leash than most. I can take bad politicians and abuse of government because I know at the end of the day their inability to do adequately do their job will be the demise of the politicians who choose to take that route.

It may not come as quickly as I would like, but eventually they will be ousted from office or the process will fix itself.

For whatever reason though, the Kentucky Senate race is really pushing me the wrong way.

On the one hand, it is great there are candidates from both sides, and it is genuinely refreshing to see so many people trying to get involved in the process.

However, what is frustrating is the notion that all 10 candidates have a chance.

Funding is the political campaign. Our president essentially won the election because he was able to outspend all of his competitors, to go along with the message of hope and change he professed.

Yes, technically, all 10 individuals with their name in the race have a chance, but the mainstream candidates with the big financial backing (Dan Mongiardo, Jack Conway, Rand Paul and Trey Grayson) are the only ones anyone is really listening to and taking seriously, mostly because of name recognition.

Then, there’s the way the Republican side is playing out.

Paul is too far in whatever direction he is for the Republican party to really have faith and invest in his campaign.

Meanwhile Grayson, in trying to pull support, has started to break away from his own traditional leanings.

It has gotten so bad that the Courier-Journal felt like endorsing either of them would be a mistake. How bad is that?

After all of their campaigning neither of the candidates is safe enough for the party to fully get behind, and the largest newspaper in the state feels like endorsing a candidate would be negligent.

Probably the most egregious aspect of the Senate race, which isn’t restricted to party affiliation, is the use of basketball to help garner votes.

I hope with all my heart that no one votes based on where someone went to school, even if it is Duke.

I hate Duke just as much as anyone, but if the better candidate came from Duke, vote for them.

It may be a silly ploy to have creative catchy bumper stickers and campaign slogans, but it is just wrong to bring in to politics, especially since I can potentially see people voting solely based on that fact alone — which speaks to several other things, but let’s save that for later.

I guess my point is, the whole endeavor is less about politics and more about showmanship, money, basketball and many other things that don’t have to deal with what a person stands for.

Maybe the Republican party needs to assess where it’s at if Paul has so much support but isn’t quite aligned with the rest of the party.

Maybe the Democrats should figure out what it means to be a Democrat in Kentucky.

Maybe then we will have an election that makes sense.