It seems like only yesterday we were in the midst of the 2008 presidential campaigns. Now, with about a year and a half until the next election, it seems like the campaigning will soon start again.
While President Barack Obama will obviously run again in 2012, who his competition will be has remained a mystery for quite some time.
Not long after the 2008 elections were over, names such as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and even our own Bobby Jindal have been thrown around as likely possibilities.
Other names, such as Sarah Palin or Donald Trump, have also been tossed around, though not nearly as seriously.
So it’s almost a relief former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is now making moves toward organizing his presidential campaign.
The keyword there is almost.
As expected from the current political atmosphere, it isn’t surprising to see Pawlenty is not a traditional GOP candidate. Affectionately named “Tea-Paw” by some of his supporters, it’s fairly obvious where his politics lie.
Describing himself as a social conservative, his political beliefs simply frighten me.
Beyond the usual economic ideas of cutting welfare programs like Social Security and Medicare as a means to balance the budget, and a dislike of modern unions, it’s Pawlenty’s social ideas that stick out far more.
As an Evangelical Christian, his views on gay marriage or abortion shouldn’t be surprising.
However, his promise of reinstating “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should he become president is downright frightening.
Not only would that be a slap in the face for civil rights — similar to California’s Proposition 8 — but it could also serve to stifle any such attempts from being made for some time.
Needless to say, Pawlenty has quickly gone to the top of a growing list of people I never want to see in the White House. Granted, most people running under the GOP or Tea Party banner would probably make this list.
Unfortunately, candidates who will try to reach out to the new Tea Party base will be like Pawlenty. While Republican candidates may have regularly been against any sort of civil rights progress for homosexuals in the past few years, it will probably become even more common.
Frankly, I will be amazed if Pawlenty is the only candidate to claim he or she would reinstate “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by the end of all this. Maybe this sort of insanity will help keep Obama in office.
Yet, beyond his beliefs, Pawlenty’s moves toward a presidential campaign signals the start of something we are all too used to: the hate-filled attack ads that plague the campaign process.
Soon enough we’ll see pointless attacks against candidates, focusing on unimportant things like why a candidate wasn’t wearing an American flag pin or what a former pastor of theirs might have believed.
Personally, I know I’m going to start watching TV less. While I may hate most commercials anyway, the campaign ads are always the worst.
With the new campaign season approaching, it seems like we haven’t done enough to fix the problems that continue to plague our elections. With no changes, we will undoubtedly continue to see low voter turnout.
If Tea-Paw is the sort of candidate we expect to see from the right wing, I can’t say I would blame people for not wanting to come out to vote.
Zachary Davis is a 20-year-old history junior from Warsaw, Poland. Follow him on Twitter@TDR_zdavis.
 
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Contact Zachary Davis at [email protected]