Howdy gang. I think I've found a theme here at MyDD.com. I've tried to be a voice for civility by default (though I have a sharp tongue when stupidity abounds). I'd like to continue in that vein.
Primary messages often morph into something else once the general election begins. The territory a primary candidate stakes is often selected because it's the only possible approach against other Democrats. That narrative doesn't usually survive unscathed in the general election.
One aspect of Barack Obama's message needs to prosper. We, his supporters, need to dial it back a notch in how we speak and write about John McCain. I do not mean we should hold our fire in criticizing the man. I will be doing it, I can assure you. However, for a variety of reasons I will lay out below the fold, we should moderate how we do it.
Read on...
First up, it's just the right thing to do. If someone gives you a reason to call him or her names, feel free. However, as Republicans go, John McCain hasn't actually been evil in any way I can recall. My parents are loyal Democrats, but they voted for Senator McCain in the South Carolina primary in 2000. While I heartily acknowledge that the John McCain of 2008 isn't the same man of 2000, there were reasons to respect the man. There still are. Forget the politics for a second. He has done things for this country, outside of his service in the military. He's worked with some of our best Senators to try to solve the problems we face. I will always appreciate that, because too many in his party won't do it.
Secondly, and I think more importantly from a tactical perspective, we're trying to poach Republican votes. We won't do that very well if we're seen as frothing at the mouth hatemongers. I think that a McCain presidency would be about the worst thing we could possibly do to our country right now, short of an actual third term for President Bush. John McCain is absolutely just plain wrong for us in so many ways its actually quite sad. But that wrongness does not require demonization. It doesn't require that we mock him for his age. It doesn't mean we should spend much time making fun of his rich, beer-industry wife. It just doesn't.
If we want to encourage Republican voters to put their country's future ahead of their party's future, we need to act like adults. Rational and reasonable adults do not spend their time explaining to anyone who will listen that John McCain's gonna kill their kids by proxy.
Civility is no vice. It is essential. We are seen as immature, both as Obama supporters and as Democrats more generally. I think we can make 2008 a year to remember, not because Senator Obama will have won it, but because of how we will have won this. It's not enough that we win. We have to set a better example of how campaigns are run. I am positively sick of each side blasting away at the other, hoping to inflict more damage than they receive.
I was a primary supporter of Barack Obama because I believe in civility in discourse. We can beat the Republicans on the issues. We can beat them honorably, even if they themselves don't always behave honorably. Our democracy, if not actually broken, damned near is broken. We can't constructively talk about the tough issues because even an honest appraisal of them (think Social Security) is suicidal and totally toxic to re-election.
Let's be proper adults, folks. Let's not support ads like the MoveOn ad. John Stewart had it right. "MoveOn.org. Ten years of making even people who agree with you cringe." Let's be better than we've been. Let's not jettison Obama's message because we really want to win. Let's use that message, that ethic, to improve our chances as well as our methods.
I don't just want to look back at 2008 as a Democratic victory. I want to look back at an American victory, for all of us, because we proved that you can win a campaign without becoming a total bastard, beholden to Rovian filth and the politics of fear and division.
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