Could it be that all of the “mindlessly vote straight DFL, or we’ll verbally attack you,”, screeching is an admission that there is no actual positive reason to vote DFL? I’ve seen a lot of political ads this season and virtually none of the DFL candidates are campaigning on anything that they claim they’ll accomplish. It seems to me that campaigning on “The other guys are so bad you should hold your nose and vote for us.”, isn’t exactly “Ask not what you country...”, nor is “Morning in America” or a “Bright shining city on a hill”. It’s simply pandering to hatred for “the other”. If a few corrupt old white guys stay in office, and if a few minority women get trampled in the stampede, that’s just collateral damage.
Is it possible, after being unable to put forth a candidate or a positive vision that was unable to beat the worst GOP candidate in modern political cal history, that doubling down on hatred and vitriol might not be a winning strategy? That maybe only being against everything isn’t a compelling rallying cry? Maybe demanding that people vote for your candidates “no matter what” isn’t the best option. Maybe inentity politics writ large, doesn’t work. Maybe demanding people’s votes, while excluding their voices won’t be as effective as y’all think.
I don’t know. I know I’m going to vote on character first and party affection second and see how it plays out.
No matter what the results, I suspect the vitriol, name calling, hatred, division, and lies will be a tsunami of the blue wave peters out.
8 comments:
Rational and moral reasons to vote Democrat:
1. The GOP has become a party of racist, misogynist, lying perverts who actively act contrary to the better ideals of liberty and justice, while the Democrat party, flawed as it is, represents our better ideals of justice for all, free speech, concern for the least of these, equal rights for women and minorities, reasonable solutions that are fiscally responsible.
2. The Dem party believes (in a flawed manner, but believes) that we should look to and respect what research and the data has to say about problems and respond appropriately. Thus, if the science tells us that climate change is a real concern and we should enact policies to meet the challenges of climate change, Dems believe we should do so.
2a. In a like manner, IF the data shows that the "war on drugs" is only making things worse and acts as a detriment especially to poor communities... or that prisoner rehab/education results in better citizens and fiscal savings... or that the "personal car model" of transportation is not fiscally or environmentally sustainable... etc, that we should enact changes that make fiscal and rational sense, given what the data says.
3. The Dem Party believes (in a flawed manner, but still...) in the rights of women, black folk and other minorities and recognizes the real historical harm caused to these groups and wants to see more representation from these minority/under represented groups and is acting to make that happen.
4. The Dem Party supports (to at least some degree, but not nearly enough) the rights and concerns of threatened humans who seek a better and safer life.
5. The Dem party supports human liberty for the LGBTQ community, whereas the GOP party has too often been hostile towards their needs and liberties. The Dem party actively opposes "erasing" transgender folk which has been proposed by the current GOP leader.
6. In short, the Dem party (flawed tho it is) is the party that currently most closely hews to the concerns for the poor, for liberty, for justice, for the environment.
Pretty compelling reasons.
So, you were able to come up with a few generic platitudes, which may or not be true in any meaningful policy sense. One wonders why it took you so long to do so, and why tour candidates aren’t making this incredibly compelling (albeit generic, bland, platitudinous, and nonexistent during the years y’all had control of the entire government) case to vote DFL.
Here’s my problem, that isn’t enough to get me to mindlessly vote for Kieth Ellison,(even if he wasn’t credibly accused of domestic violence, I couldn’t get past the fact that he’s one of the least intelligent people I’ve ever met) or Sen Menendez, if given the choice. Nor would it compel me to vote against the increasing numbers of young GOP candidates who demonstrate good character (and who check the affirmative action boxes y’all thought you had locked up).
If this current level of vitriol, lies, and hatred is calculated to entice people to vote DFL, I can only imagine what depths y’all will sink to if y’all don’t get tour way. Personally I’ve never seen throwing a tantrum work well, maybe y’all will be the exception.
It's worse than that, Craig. Dan's list is nonsensical and fact-challenged. It pretty much validates the point of your post, that his list stands more as an attack on the GOP as opposed to anything even remotely resembling a real reason to vote Democrat.
I’m going to try to be fair to Dan, and acknowledge that he offered a list that goes beyond the mindless voting booth that has been an advocated clearly there are flaws with this list, the most obvious being that it’s more a list of things that the Democratic Party believes and theoretically rather than in a sense of trying to actually enact policies. He has it knowledged that the Democrats don’t do a particularly good job of living up to the items on his list, but again I will give him credit for coming up with a list of reasons why someone might want to consider voting Democrat. I believe I have addressed the lack of specifics, the lack of actual attempt to legislate on any of boot Items, and the acknowledgment of failure to live up to the ideals. Call I could, although I don’t really want to, spend the time to point out specific areas in which items on the list clearly don’t represent reality. At this point, we will know a lot more tomorrow and then we do today.
Just the very first item shows something less than a legitimate reason to vote Dem, and hardly moral given what an out and out lie it is. But then, lies are what the Dems need believed by sheep in order to gain and maintain power.
By the way, one can't be fair to a person by pretending his nonsense is legitimate. It's rather unfair to his salvation to pretend his immorality is legitimate. That's a bit of an overstatement, but I'm in a hurry and want the point to be understood...at least by you. Never know if it will be by him.
Maybe I’m going beyond fair. He made the effort and I’m giving him credit for doing so.
You know what I’d be justified in doing if I was simply going for fair. I’m trying to be better than that.
You mean you're trying to truly embrace grace?
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