On the eve of this Super Tuesday, I feel like getting a few thoughts off my chest about how I've viewed and approached the primary and its candidates. A short thread...
First: it's worth noting that EVERY candidate has issues from their past, in their personal history or voting record or both. The United States is a very diverse country, and it is almost impossible to live a public life without upsetting somebody.
And that's not to dismiss that anger or say it isn't justified, just that... we need to focus on lifting our candidates and their ideas up, not tearing them down.
The GOP will tear down any candidate, regardless of the merits, because that's the ONLY strategy they have. They can't run on their record. So we shouldn't help them at it, and we also shouldn't live in fear of their attacks, which are coming regardless.
My strategy on twitter has been to boost and support those policies and statements that I really like, regardless of the candidate, and stick to focus my criticisms on specific policies that I don't like.
I worry that Democrats have internalized too much of the GOP strategy of absolute destruction of an opponent. It works for them, and their cult, but just divides a diverse party like we have.
We need to accept that we're going to have differences, and serious differences, with each other, but that we are all more or less in this together. I am assuming that most of the candidates in the primary truly want to help people and the country, until proven otherwise.
And our ideal choice of candidate may not be the one who ends up on the ticket, but all of them want to take us in a good direction. Some seem like they will do a better job than others, but even there it is hard to predict what their policies will be once political reality hits.
Avoid falling into the trap of thinking that only your candidate has the solutions, and only your candidate can make a difference. That's cult-like thinking, and exactly the sort of thinking that leads to a Trump. Remember, he said repeatedly, "I alone can fix things."
Finally: don't badger or insult people about their choice of candidate or their reasons for voting the way they do. That sort of approach is doomed to fail, and will even have the opposite effect. Unless you're running a reverse psychology Russian psy-op, it's a bad idea.
Anyway: stop attacking people and tearing down candidates you don't like. Lift up and boost those candidates that you do like. Remember: we're all in this together. That, to me, is the Democratic way.
It's a bit of a cliche to say that this election is the most important one we've ever faced, as it's said every election. And every election, it's actually been true. Every election where we don't turn up, things get worse...
My preferred candidate will probably not get the nomination, but I am going to support the hell out of whoever does get it, even if I don't like them much. There are too many vulnerable people who will suffer and be punished if we don't effect change this year. /END
PS almost forgot: I'm looking at our inevitable candidate the way that Benjamin Franklin looked at the Constitution. An excerpt follows in the next tweet, from this link. benjamin-franklin-history.org/constitutional…
"Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad..."
"If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received..."
He also noted that his negative views might be wrong: "For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise."
No candidate we choose will be perfect. No, not even yours. But that's okay, because we also can hold them to a better standard when they're in office by contacting our representatives. We have a voice in government; I expect any Democratic candidate will listen. /FINALEND
