I watched the Kentucky Senate debate last night — the debate between Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes. I am a partisan Republican and an admirer of McConnell. Even if I were not, however, I think I would have the same view: Grimes was a robot, and an often nasty one. She was scarcely a human being. McConnell was a human being (like him or not).

Grimes kept saying the same things over and over. This was not “message discipline.” This was creepy. And the things she said over and over, I didn’t really understand. “Grow the middle class in the right way.” Huh?

One of the candidate’s robotic insults was this: “I don’t fault Senator McConnell for becoming a multi-millionaire on the backs of hard-working Kentuckians. That’s what America’s about. But he’s gotten rich while keeping Kentuckians poor.”

This is why, I think, I could not participate in politics. McConnell just sat there like his opponent had said, “Nice weather we’re having,” or, “I favor an increase in the minimum wage.” Mitch was his old serene, unflappable self. I could not have sat there, next to that woman.

And I suppose that’s one reason McConnell is the Senate Republican leader while I’m typing blogposts. “Politics ain’t beanbag,” I’ve heard all my life. That is the phrase that excuses all wrong. Yes, politics is rough. But it does not have to be despicable.

Too naive for ya?