THE SILLY SEASON: With Adolf, a tsunami of inanity drowns CoMo candidates

COLUMBIA, Mo 4/8/25 (Op-Ed) -- I have to hand it to Mike Murphy at CoMoBuz, who has stayed serious despite the tsunami of inanity that has swept away the serious issues that ought to dominate Tuesday's elections.

Almost from the get-go, Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies kicked in, with some of the most unlikely defendants in my 30-year memory of online brawls: non-partisan candidates for Columbia City Council and School Board. 

The reasoning goes something like this: said candidates -- all of whom are challenging incumbents -- support cops and public safety, and are therefore "conservative."

Conservative equals Republican = Trump = Fascist = Hitler and Nazis. 

By Godwins Law, challengers in Columbia's April 8 elections may somehow re-institute the Third Reich and must be resisted at all costs to preserve "democracy."

Enter the Columbia preacher who allegedly stole some Murphy for Mayor signs. To resist. To.Save.Democracy. Because, well -- Nazis. 

Enter the Nastiness toward Nourish, a downtown Columbia restaurant suddenly faced with fake reviews and political cancellation over a donation to Mayoral challenger Blair Murphy.  Which, of course, could lead to a resurgence of the Third Reich right here in the middle of Midwestern America. (Note sarcasm based on absurdity of premise). 


I was done taking this campaign season as seriously as I should even before the Murphy campaign was sign-swiped for the umpteenth time. But my missing gravity is not the candidates' fault.

None of them have gone negative. Not one has accused the other of being Hitler's successor. A couple candidates have had throwdowns, mostly on Facebook, but with supporters of other candidates, not other candidates themselves. On the whole, this campaign season has been among the cleanest, candidate wise, I can recall.  

 

Murph sign theft. Photo credit: Kelly Veach
The cleanest -- and yet, the craziest. Oxymoron, much? Not really. Supporters (one candidate's supporter is another candidate's opposer) have driven this campaign season, in all its crazy color. 

While Mayor Buffaloe's tunnel vision has lent itself to dozens of memes and funnies, Murph Money -- campaign donations from zealous supporters who may themselves have tunnel vision -- is also rich with comedy gold. I can see a standup comic taking a whack at it.

"So how come a guy needs two hundred fifty thousand dollars to get a job that only pays nine thousand? I mean, he's running for Mayor of Columbia, not going to college on student loans!"

There's a part of me that gets it -- donors want to send the loudest message possible that they are dissatisfied with Mayor Buffaloe's leadership or lack thereof. At the same time, all that money looks bad. So many people are struggling financially and economically.

More importantly, Blair Murphy doesn't need the money. He's about as beloved and trusted and well-known over more than half a century in this town as anyone. He's a good guy with tremendous interest and care for Columbia. (Why else put yourself through the absurdities of Godwin?) Murphy has stayed in the background all his life here, stepping up when he felt he was needed most. If anything, his backers will owe HIM, not the other way around.

Which brings me back to the idea that supporters have driven this campaign season to extremes on all sides more than I've ever seen.

Maybe in future cycles, supporters should chill out.