I’ve always enjoyed elections.

Even as a young child, I can remember staying up late those first Tuesdays in November to watch the map of the United States turn into a hodgepodge of blue and red while pundits like the late, great Tim Russert told us all exactly what it meant.

When I started in journalism, I was excited to get to finally cover those elections myself, covering not only the results but the frenzied actions that lead up to those votes – the different factions competing and clamoring for attention.

A part of me still loves that dance, but the light in my heart is fading.

Over the last few months, I joined a local political Facebook group in order to better understand and be able to report on some of the issues that people here in Baldwin County were thinking are important.

Other members of the media had told me about how active the group was and the number of interesting posts and ideas that came out of it.

I looked forward to getting to see these discussions myself, possibly using them to help fill out stories by including opposing viewpoints or even getting story ideas that I had either never considered as options or simply didn’t know about.

What high hopes I had for a forum of civilized discourse, however, were soon dashed.

What I did see in the posts on that group ranged from the puzzling and confusing to deeply disturbing and unsettling.

As the weeks rolled on, I observed the group seemed to be little more than an echo chamber for those who had already made up their minds and seemed dead set not to have any change in that way of thinking.

Statements and accusations were made against local elected officials with little to no presented evidence.

Rumors of corruption and graft abounded, but proof was never really provided.

If a group member dared speak out or ask for evidence to support the wild accusations, they were generally mocked or even banned from the group outright.

To make matters worse, some of those comments turned to racism, as one member posted that a respected local Asian economist needed to “go back to his wok” while another member mocked his name as sounding like someone “named after a bodily fluid.”

The moderators, some of whom I know to be good and decent people in real life, sit by and let these sorts of things happen. As the group attacks people with the ferocity of a pack of wolves, they shrug and say “I can’t control everything they do.”

My initial reaction to all of this vitriol and hate spewing out across social media was anger, but it has dulled to an intense sadness.

I know I shouldn’t have high expectations for what people say or do on social media, but when a group is made up of people who are community leaders, political activists and cause-supporting citizens, I wanted to think them all being capable of being better than this.

We face important issues right now in Baldwin County and we need to be having real discussions about ideas and ways to help grow and move this county forward, not endless self-indulgent social media posts, unwarranted personal attacks and unsubstantiated claims.

You’re better than this, Baldwin County, so act like it.

Cliff McCollum is managing editor of Gulf Coast Media. He can be reached at cliff@gulfcoastmedia.com.