Opinion - Georgia voters vs. the walking dead

Here's one small glimpse into the rotting mind of Georgia's zombie-infested electorate:

Joe Martin is hands down the most qualified school superintendent candidate the state has seen in years. His opponent is perfectly suited to serve on a local school board, meaning he lacks Martin's decades of management, executive and policy experience. Still, we're told it's going to be a tight race. Why? Because Martin's name will be accompanied on the ballot by a "D."

OK, we know you've been itchin' to send a message to President Obama and Nancy Pelosi about deficit spending or socialism or something like that. But listen: We live in Georgia. We do not live in Washington, D.C. So if we want to further our self-interest, we need to focus on the very real threats facing our communities right now. The best way to do this is to break ranks with the herd and vote for the candidates best equipped to come up with solutions — and deliver results — on education, transportation, water resources and health care.

So why is it we keep hearing predictions of a Republican sweep of statewide posts? (And, for your information, we endorsed several Republicans — because they were the most qualified for the job. Check out our endorsements if you don't believe us.)

Between the Tea Partiers and their ambiguously motivated message of populist rage at all things governmental to the slew of candidates who suffer from foot-in-mouth or flexible ethics syndrome and are patently unqualified to hold the posts for which they're running, these past few months of political antics have had the feel of a rejected "South Park" script.

We say fight it. Fight the temptation to be drawn into a faux-public discourse — largely manufactured by talk-radio villains and right-wing bloodsuckers — about "elites" and "tyranny" and whether the Constitution is hanging by one thread or two. Ten years from now, we'll look back and wonder what that paranoid horseshit was all about.

Just as important, however, is to fight the cynicism that compels you to skip the whole business and stay home, draw the curtains and spend Nov. 2 watching online porn. We know the scorched-earth political rhetoric can be wearying and ultimately off-putting, but hang in there. As the folks in Johns Creek, Alpharetta or Atlanta will tell you, it really matters who's elected to the Fulton County Commission. For anyone with monthly cell phone, cable and power bills, it matters who serves on the Public Service Commission. And if you care about the future of Georgia, you shouldn't pick your next state school superintendent solely by party affiliation.

And if you fail to listen to us? Then the zombies will have won.