NOMINATING GAMES
It has been a while since we have witnessed a group determined to commit suicide.
We like to think that such incidents as the Jonesville mass self-immolations become a thing of the past. We like to believe we have solved that problem. We mumble words about having solved such a severe situation.
Yet. we are currently witnessing a display in which a group of politicians are maligning each other as they seek the nomination of their party to become President of our nation. It seems to be a poor way to go about it.
After all, these are members of one family, in a sense. For them to openly disparage each other would seem to be an error because the very voters to whom they are talking are the same who will be voting for that person nominated by the party. It will demand a great deal of damage control when the actual campaign gets underway.
Some individuals out there in voter-land may be as dumb as their leaders seem to think they are, but most are apt to think twice about voting for any man so openly condemned by the people who work with him and should know him best of all. When Gephart and Deane tell what each thinks of Medicare, for instance, they take opposite views - entirely opposite. One claims Medicare is the “worst” single mistake of all time; while the other contends it has been the ”best” achievement of their party. One or the other, in the mind of the voter, has to be wrong.
To speak disparagingly of the other members of the group would seem to me to harm their own chance. Not only do I feel it to be a political error but it remains an infraction of common rules of politeness. By this time viewers have pretty well sorted out the better candidates and which will best. Most of them have been eliminated long ago. All of them suffer daily just to stay alive. If any last-minute entries - such as General Wesley Clark, Al Gore or Hillary Clinton, make themselves available to “save the party” without having undergone all this fellow-runner criticism they have a marked advantage.
Serious damage is being done daily as contenting nominees malign each other. Much of it is irreparable.
There must be a better way,
A.L.M. September 30, 2003 [c422wds]
