Why is it that when a political candidate is losing in the polls, he attempts to bolster support by attacking his opponent? Why shouldn’t his own record, policies, beliefs and plans be what he runs on? If those aren’t winning over the American public, then perhaps he isn’t the right person for the job. Tough to swallow but true. If you can’t stand on your own record, don’t try to slam your opponent’s in a futile and frankly pathetic attempt to build yourself up.
It reminds me of those people you know who are truly unhappy. They never have anything good to say. Never a positive remark. Ed McMahon could show up on their doorstep with a $5 million check, and they would complain about him showing up without calling first, or the taxes they will owe on the windfall, or the fact that he didn’t bring a $10 million check. You probably know people like this. What you know is that because they are so unhappy, they spend all of their time saying negative things about other people, seeming to revel in the pain of others’ lives. The unhappy build themselves up by tearing virtually everyone else down.
I think most candidates enter a race believing they’ll just talk about their records, their experience and their plans for the future. But it doesn’t take long before they stop talking about what they want to do and why they’re the best person for the job and they start bashing the other candidate. Perhaps it would be tolerable if the “bashing” stuck to accurate accounts of the opponent’s record and experience and thoughtful criticism of the opponent’s plans. What should not be acceptable is the utter destruction of the opponent’s character. Lowering oneself to this level is unconscionable. It’s a pathetic attempt by an unhappy candidate to make us believe his opponent is a miserable human being.
Why do candidates get away with this hideous behavior? Because we, the voting public, let them. We tolerate it. We listen to it. We might even be ignorant enough to believe it. There’s an old saying about not rolling around in the mud with pigs. It merely pleasures the pig and you get filthy. Yet, election after election, once a candidate opens the gate to the pig sty, there we are, walking right in to meet the pig. Shame on those candidates. A bigger shame on us.
It’s okay to attack your opponent’s record as long as you have a better one to talk about. It’s okay to attack your opponent’s plans as long as you can substantiate your own. It’s never okay to attack an opponent with rumor, gossip and innuendo. Never.
Perhaps if we choose to rise above this type of behavior, our candidates will be forced to follow. If their blasphemy falls upon deaf ears, perhaps they will cease to speak it.
Why don’t we find out?
c 2008 T.M. Terhune
