Best of Grizzard- Run For Public Office

  • Wednesday, July 17, 2024
  • Jerry Summers

With the political season warming up, what can a newspaper columnist who died in 1994 after three aortic valve replacements add to the dignified ongoing commentary in the political races at the local, state, and national levels?

Although some naysayers will say that Lewis Grizzard was too negative, cynical and outdated with his comments in 2024, he did discuss the topic of divisive comments in his 1987 national bestseller “When My Love Returns from the Ladies’ Room, Will I Be Too Old to Care?” (Ballantine Books- New York):

1. “But in the recent national elections, we had a new twist known as negative advertising. This is where you pay an advertising firm two or three million dollars to invent television and radio commercials saying your opponent has bad breath, and sleeps in his underwear I happened to be doing a great deal of traveling during the final weeks of the campaign, and after seeing negative commercial after negative commercial, I became concerned that every candidate running was some sort of dishonest mudbrain.”

2. “In Georgia, incumbent Republican Senator Mack Mattingly basically stayed out of his campaign with the exception of buying commercials that said his opponent, Democrat Wyche Fowler, hardly ever bothered to appear for votes during his term as U.S. representative. Fowler got even, however; he beat Mattingly, who won't be making any appearances in the Senate anymore. I have a friend who once ran for a local county post. He lost. "It was the worst experience I ever had," he said. "Every time I told a lie, they caught me, and every time I told the truth, nobody would believe me."

(Thank goodness politics and the legal profession in 2024 have reached a new level of dignity with their media campaigns!)

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If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact him at jsummers@summersfirm.com)

Jerry Summers
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