There are 20 candidates running now for the nomination of the Democratic Party for President:
As an exercise, think about how many of them you are able to say something positive. That does not mean that a candidate is a great candidate or even a good one. It means that there is at least one thing positive about them as a human being. Honestly, there are people that I don’t like very much as candidates and elected officials. That makes it even more important that I am able to say something positive about the person. And each of these candidates is flawed. We could educate voters about the flaws of each one, in other words smear every single one of them. They are all imperfect, very imperfect. And after smearing them and dividing the party, we end up reelecting Donald Trump ! Even as every one of them is very flawed, every one of them would be better than Donald Trump !
Joe Biden — I admire Joe Biden for his courage in choosing to serve the country after suffering great personal loss.
Cory Booker — I admire him for the fact that he still lives in a tough neighborhood, never forgetting his roots, and for saving a citizen from a fire ! He was also a Rhodes Scholar ! He is very intelligent and a very good speaker .
Pete Buttigieg — I admire him for his great intelligence, his education, and his communication ability ! I admire him for his military service and for his bravery running as a married gay man ! He was a Rhodes Scholar and graduated with honors from Harvard University and with a first class degree from Oxford. He was president of the prestigious Institute of Politics while at Harvard. He is fluent in eight languages.
Julian Castro — I admire him for his humility and the stands he takes for reparation and impeachment ! He is a very good speaker . He promoted and got universal pre K passed in San Antonio . He showed himself to be very well-informed on the issues in his townhall. He supports reparations !
John Delaney — I admire him for his willingness to be first to the fight against Donald Trump !
Tulsi Gabbard — I admire her for her service to the country in the military and her willingness to admit that she was wrong and to change and I personally believe that she is sincere in that change ! She is dedicated to promoting peace in the world. She was a leader in leaving the war in Yemen. Instead of wasting money on foreign conflicts we should have no part in, she wants to invest in the people in our own country !
Kirsten Gillibrand— I admire her for her toughness. I also really like how she changed her policies when her constituency changed ! She is a champion for women and the metoo movement and that is good for everybody ! She would be a very good president ! She won a lot of rural and republican districts in New York in her last run as senator enabling her to win the highest percentage of the vote in New York in the state’s history!
Kamala Harris — I admire her for her tough questioning and she supports Medicare for All and impeachment !! She is very charismatic and a very good communicator !! She was first with fixing the mortality rate of black women when they give birth ! She has a super strong background as the attorney general of the most populous state in the country !
John Hickenlooper — I like that he was both a mayor and a governor and has business experience. (I know one criticism that almost all of us have of him and me too but this is just something positive).
Jay Inslee — I love that this man, in contrast, understands climate change and is committed to fighting it and supports the Green New Deal ! He has a good, strong record as a governor !
Amy Kobluchar — I like how she is able to win in so many rural areas and how gritty she is ! She is very well educated and a strong background as a district attorney and has a lot of experience as a U.S. Senator ! She has a record of being able to work across the aisle and get legislation passed ! She is unafraid to tell voters what she believes even if it may not be popular.
Wayne Messum — I like that he has served as mayor of a very diverse community and started his own business.
Seth Moulton — I admire him for his service as a marine ! I know after certain recent events some may think he would be outstanding serving outside of government ! I can’t disagree with that !
Beto O’Rourke — I admire him for stance for undocumented people in our country ! He is charismatic and willing to stand up to and fight Donald Trump !
Tim Ryan — I admire him for saying in a district Trump won that Trump did not keep the promises he made to blue collar workers ! I think he could join Seth in creating some way to serve their communities outside of government ! This would free him from having to serve under the speaker he does not support .
Bernie Sanders — Many of the policies he speaks about are good. If they could pass the senate and the house and become law, they would be really good for lots of people, especially people like me. He is more broadly focused in terms of issues this election compared to the last one. He has lots of experience in Washington. He did release his taxes. He advocated for Medicare for All earlier than all of the other candidates. He pushed for free college before other candidates. He supports the Green New Deal. I believe that he would be a better president than Donald Trump. He did say that he wanted a positive campaign which if he and his supporters actually implement could help them win a lot more supporters.
Eric Swalwell — I like that he has been serving on the intelligence committee and is a strong advocate for impeachment ! He has been an aggressive advocate for holding the president accountable!
Elizabeth Warren—I love that she is a leader in setting down progressive policy. I love that she is brilliant. I love that she does her homework and read the Mueller Report and THEN supported impeachment ! She set out a great policy for freeing students from massive student debt ! She is extremely tough and passionate ! She is extremely committed to helping the poor and the middle class ! She has a great wealth tax plan ! She supports Medicare for All. She is a great champion for all of us vulnerable people who need a champion !
Mariann Williamson — I really admire her for her compassion for others. I admire her for her ability to unite people of all different world. I like that she supports reparations.
Andrew Yang— I like that he chose to help minority entrepreneurs start their company in many different cities. As a result of his work, he was commended by President Obama! He understands the effect of automation on regular people and supports a version of UBI . He supports decriminalizing personal amounts of heroin and oxycodone and hydrocodone so that more people will come forward and get the help that they need.
I was able to write at least one positive thing and often several positive things that I liked about every single candidate. There are four candidates that I am not necessarily the biggest fan of, but I was able to write something positive about them anyway. There is a big difference between saying Jane Doe is a terrible person who supported a terrible bill and saying Jane Doe is a good person who is on the wrong side of several issues and is, therefore, not the best candidate in my opinion for this election. There is also a difference in criticizing other people’s candidates and criticizing them day after day after day. Fair criticism is part of any election. It is a necessary part of it. However, demonizing the opponent isn’t a necessary part of the primary and there really should not be a place for it within our primary. Let’s trust the voters enough to pick somebody who is where the party as a whole is. Right now, my main concern is if a candidate’s supporters frequently and consistently write hit pieces on any candidate that is competitive and as a result end up lacking enough support from the party to be able to cross the finish line with the votes and support needed to win the electoral college and defeat Trump.
Last election, the second place finisher’s supporters were viewed (rightly or wrongly) as demonizing the nominee during the primary. That did not help that candidate win. The attackers view this as educating voters. That would be fine if it were presented in a reasonable way without demonizing anybody who seems like that they might be a threat to their candidate and if not done day after day after day. It tends to exacerbate problems and it tends to lead to retaliation. It is also very subjective.
Are harsh criticisms of a person’s candidate likely to convince them to drop their support of their candidate and switch their support to the critic’s candidate ? They are not likely to win over people that way. First, the harsh rhetoric stopped up the ears and shut the eyes of the person that the critic is trying to win over. They lost credibility because of the harsh rhetoric. They became perceived as passionate, biased partisans rather than honest brokers of truth. The harsh rhetoric uses adjectives or figurative language and is subjective. The critic is presenting the criteria that they (the critic) value, but that often will not be the criteria that the person they are in theory trying to win over is using to make their determination. A really harsh criticism of the candidate somebody likes can be taken to imply that the critic thinks the target is dumb for supporting that candidate. The criticism is subjective. Thus, an emotional response is not unreasonable. The target is likely to be turned against the critic’s favorite candidate for many of the same reasons. These same factors cause impartial people to be turned against the critic’s candidate.
For me (and this is subjective), I try to follow a few basic policies: (1) Does my post meet Wee Mama’s requirements: Is it kind ? Is it true ? Is it necessary ? (2) If it is a criticism, is it fair ? Does it present things in context ? Does it separate the criticism from the person as a whole ? In other words, does it still allow for the candidate to be a good person but is simply wrong on an issue ? Does it avoid demonizing or vilifying the candidate ? (3) Am I writing more positive diaries about my candidate or candidates that I like than negative diaries about candidates that I don’t care for ? (4) Am I making it more or less likely that whoever wins our nomination will defeat Donald Trump in 2020 ?
Finally, I would like to make one further point. It is most likely that we will emerge after the 2020 election with 49 senators in our caucus. That means that anything that is going to become law will have to earn the support and vote of at least one republican senator. It will also have to win the support of Joe Manchin. That means that the differences that candidates have in policy have a good chance of not being reflected if/when we win the White House. So, even if one candidate has much better policies, they may not be able to get those better policies passed. That means in terms of outcomes, it may not matter who wins the primary. So, policy differences may not be as important as some people here might believe. Character and integrity also matter. There are some issues that will arise that we are not aware of at this time.
Let’s support and promote our candidates, criticize less than we promote, criticize fairly, and stay united so that we can defeat Donald Trump in 2020 !