Negative Campaigning
I have a confession to make, I like negative campaigning. I've spent the last few years trying to convince myself that mudslinging in a political race is somehow a show of low class. I've changed my mind though.
What changed my mind? The flood of Congressional scandals that are now threatening the Republican party's majority in Congress. I have been disgusted by the number of Republicans and Democrats who have been implicated in a wide array of scandals that have all occurred on the Republican's watch.
So what does this have to do with negative campaigning? It's because I want FULL DISCLOSURE of my representatives past. Sorry to be so demanding, but I no longer feel like I can trust them. I grew up reading stories of Randy "Duke" Cunningham's famous dogfight over Vietnam, which is still taught at Top Gun today. A Navy Ace who had served his country with distinction and honor, who today sits in jail on federal charges of bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion. Given his past deeds, voters elected him to Congress as their trusted Representative. They had no idea of his character flaws. My point is, I want to know what kind of character my representatives have before I go to the ballot box. The best way to do that is to get everything out in the open. Put all of the cards on the table and let the people decide. More importantly, it allows ethical issues and character flaws to be dealt with BEFORE these people get elected to Congress.
Everyone has skeletons in their closet. Everyone has done things that they are not proud of. But who these guys were before they polished themselves up for political office speaks to their character and integrity. So lay it all on the table. The dirt that your opponent digs up on you is as important to me as your stance on issues. I would take a Joe Lieberman over another Randy "Duke" Cunningham anyday!
posted by Mboniface @ 7:53 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
People change. What a person does in their past is not always indicative of what they will do in the future. A lot of politicians are corrupted AFTER they enter office...corrupted by the position of power they sit in.
Digging up dirt on a political opponent's past should be limited to what they have done in their adult life, not as a student in high school or the first few years of college.
People change and experiences are the biggest motivation for change.
If you saw all the "character flaws" and "get everything out in the open", your choice would almost always be the lesser of two evils. That is why the saying goes, "Never trust a politician".
Things like countless charges of sexual harassment, malicious steroid use, birth outside this country and action movie participation, those are important. Oh, but somehow California will vote to make sure that ... he'll be back.
Brilliant!
I think what you did in college and High School is just as important. I would want to know if someone running for political office in my district was once charged and convicted of attempting to use a date rape drug.
Get it out in the open and then let the voter decide...
Except for criminal records and egregious offenses, a candidate’s early life means nothing to me. If you hold everyone to account for every skeleton in their closets by laying it all out to public view before they can qualify as candidates, your pool of candidates will amount to a very few (and a lot of perfectly boring ones at that). Different people grow up at different rates and you have to take much of early life with a grain of salt unless it’s clearly dangerous or aberrant behavior.
Politics – the power of office – is the largest corrupting influence and has been since the beginning of time. That’s where the real crimes are perpetrated against the system and the people for personal gain and that’s where I want to hold my representatives the most accountable for their actions, not whether they used the “n” word 30 years ago on the football field or whether they told a Polish joke at their junior prom in 1980.
Mudslinging simply masks a lack of ideas in the candidate and campaign that uses it. Unfortunately, in today’s society, too few voters take the time to understand ideas to handle complex problems, so they just listen to sound bites instead – which drives folks to negative campaigning to get votes. One big cycle that shows few signs of abating.
Politics may be the ultimate corrupting influence, or it may be that political office draws corruptible people to it. People whose thirst for power and prestige overshadow their moral compass are not hard to find in Congress. I still require a thorough background check on my candidate by the press.
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