Now that the Democratic primaries now include at least three major players: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley, and likely one or two more decent candidates before we're through, it seems like not a single diary goes by without some supporter of one candidate taking a shot at one of the others. And yeah, I'm probably guilty of that myself.
Plus, now that O'Malley has announced, I have also noticed an increasing trend of borderline CT about how his campaign is only meant to siphon votes away from Sanders, or Hillary, or whatever.
This all seems very needlessly counter-productive.
After all, any one of these candidates - though none are perfect, but who among us is? - would make for a fine Democratic President. Especially in contrast to any one of the Republican candidates potentially being President.
Furthermore, for various justifications, many here have been calling for months for a strongly contested Primary. Now that we have just that, why not appreciate it for what it is?
In Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley, we have at least three quality Democratic candidates, who could potentially win the Presidency.
Why is that not a reason to celebrate, rather than tear each other down?
Any one of them could potentially create some large coat-tails for lower seats. Remember Congress? Wouldn't it be nice if we trusted that whoever wins the nomination will be a great standard-bearer, so that we can then devote more resources to the Senate and House, and beyond.
Any one of them could potentially appoint one or more Supreme Court Justices. Can anyone really say that any of their appointments would be any worse than one of the Republican frontrunners?
And even if your preferred candidate doesn't ultimately get the nod; thanks to their participation in the Primaries, the media has already focused more - and likely will continue to do so throughout the Primaries - on the Liberal policies we've been sorely lacking on the big stage. Income inequality. Immigration reform. The TPP. Even climate change. Think we haven't been getting enough coverage on these issues in the Dem primaries? Try finding anything even remotely as substantive on the Republican end.
We have the contested Democratic Primary we have been itching for. Whoever comes out of it on top will likely be that much more stronger of a candidate as a result.
Ultimately, I know that this will do very little to stifle the debate. This is what the primaries are for, after all, as many here will likely attest to. And I know that as an inherently internet forum, some of the muckraking here is monumentally inevitable.
But the debate here does not have to be so self-destructive, so immaterial. The mainstream media already has such character attacks suitably covered. We should find more productive methods of discussing the candidates.
Perhaps it is not my place at this point, but I am simply hoping we can all focus on elevating the primaries to as positive as they can possibly be: highlighting the qualities that make each candidate great, and shining scrutiny on only the dark spots that would provide real substance as to the type of President that the candidate would likely become.
To repeat myself from a recent diary, when it comes to our developing Democratic Primary landscape: "Why can't we all be heartened by all of our candidates, especially in contrast to the Republican options?"