Thread by @Noahpinion

1/Just some random thoughts on candidates and political messaging.

When a candidate and their supporters constantly go negative, it turns me off. Not because it lacks decorum or civility or blah blah blah, but because it feels like a sign of weakness.

2/If you have a really good candidate - an inspiring candidate with an inspiring vision for the country - you should be broadcasting that message most of the time. Showcasing that admirable person and that inspiring vision.

3/In contrast, if you're spending most of your time attacking other candidates, it feels like your own candidate is a void. It feels like you're implicitly arguing that your own candidate is the lesser of evils, or the best house in a bad neighborhood, etc. etc.

4/The more candidates there are, the less credible it seems when you try to shitpost all of them out of the race in the hopes that your own candidate will float to the top.

They can't ALL be that bad, can they?

5/It's like any social situation. If you're the guy who keeps going around calling everyone else an asshole, eventually people are going to say "Hey, actually, *you're* the asshole."

6/I'm not trying to say that negative campaigning is never necessary. But when that's all you've got, you're not going to inspire a lot of people. Or at least, you aren't going to inspire me.

7/Now, some people are going to say "Well what about Trump? Didn't he just keep insulting every rival until he was the only one left?"

Well, sort of, but A) Trump really did inspire a lot of bad people, and B) Trump is a Republican, and I can't speak for Republicans...

8/Great Democratic candidates have never been the relentlessly negative type. They've always inspired people with positive visions for the country. And because their campaigns were centered around those compelling visions, negative stuff rarely stuck to them.

9/A compelling, inspiring candidate is teflon. Nothing seems to stick, because deep down, people just want that vision, oppo dumps be damned.

But an empty, hollow candidate who can only lash out is eventually going to get a taste of their own medicine.

10/So if you support Candidate X, stop trying to tell me why every other candidate is horrible, and start telling me why Candidate X is great. Otherwise, I'm eventually just going to tune you out.

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