Ideally, elections should be contests of competing ideas, with different philosophies for addressing problems, different proposals for addressing those problems by the candidates. I am proud to belong to a party that cares about such ideas, that cares about providing solutions to problems so many of us face. Yet, the entire political process has devolved in the past 20-30 years, to the point that election politics seem to have become the politics of the least worst choice.
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Republicans invest billions in campaigns to assassinate the character of Democratic candidates. They are quite adept at making our candidates seem radioactive. They don’t often argue the strong points of their candidates (to the extent there may be some). They argue the negatives of our candidates, whether those are real or not.
Their main argument seems to be to vote for their candidate for not being as bad as our candidate. They may or may not realize that their strategy is the strongest possible confirmation that their candidate is a poor one. They don’t care. If they cannot get your vote, their next best option is to make sure that you don’t vote for our candidate, one of the more insidious (but also effective) forms of vote suppression.
of power. Best of all (for them), this cowardly strategy insures the contest is run on character and personality, never substance. That is a confession that their substance is completely lacking. That causes them no qualms of conscience, because, for them, elections are not about serving and helping our people, but, rather, the acquisition and retention of power.
It’s time to switch the emphasis back to where it should be.
If you have input with your candidates, encourage them to never reply directly to Republican efforts to make them seem an unsatisfactory choice. Suggest that, instead, they smile at the cowardly gesture and call it what it is: a bald-faced confession as to the inferiority of their candidate, along with a gesture they HOPE will steer the debate away from substantive issues. Say no, then switch the debate back to those issues, and say that what voters want is real, practical solutions to the problems that face us.
And follow it with comments that the many forms of electoral cheating that party has cultivated represent the exact same confession, that they are pathologically afraid of competing in the free market of political ideas. If they opponent demurs, then ask, so you support conducting elections on the basis of ideas, and will support dismantling efforts to gerrymander and vote suppress?
Let the voters read their replies on their faces, and in their behavior after. They aren’t going to undo gerrymandering and vote suppression. Because they are afraid. Because they know as well as you and me that they can’t compete when it comes to ideas. They don’t care to. In fact, they gave up - on the only playing field that should matter - ages ago. Electoral cheating is the linchpin to surviving
that failure. None of them can stop it. None of them will try, cowardly though their refusal is. But we can shine a light on that. And keep it shining.
On to tonight’s comments!
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