I often get comments to unflattering, factual posts about candidates in the democratic primary saying that “we can’t eat our own” and that I should stop “attacking” candidates I don’t like. These comments make me bitchy for a myriad of different reasons.
First of all, if I don’t like a candidate, it’s based on their track records of action or rhetoric. I do not get emotionally engaged with politicians I support, or even have met. I’ve met Hillary Clinton a few times and I found her to be lovely and even (some of you won’t believe this) warm. That did not mean that I was going to automatically vote for her in the 2016 primary. My decision to vote against her was based on her record. Full stop.
I’ve met Biden too. Also lovely. Also not a candidate I support in this primary for a multitude of different reasons, all based on his legislative record and rhetoric that I have deemed to be harmful. At one point in this primary, I had met 5 of the candidates and actively campaigned for 1 in a previous run for office. I wasn’t going to vote for any of them. De Blasio was the one I actively campaigned for during his first run for mayor. He was running on getting Universal Pre K for all New Yorkers. An issue that I understood was going to be a meaningful game changer for low income residents of New York City. He got it done, and it has been a big game changer. I will never take that away from him, although he’s been shady and corrupt in several other ways. Despite having many very pleasant interactions with him during the course of that campaign, and despite his delivering on the core reason why I supported him, I looked at his record in the main and concluded that there are much better candidates in the field for me.
It’s all about a candidates’ record for me. If I don’t like a candidate, it’s not based on style or some visceral reaction.
So when you read a post about a candidate that anyone puts into your social media feed, getting defensive because your default position is to question their motives is not only childish, it’s also closed minded. I soak up every bit of information I can about any politician and then weigh what I’ve learned against their track records. I don’t give 2 fucks about who posted the article or why. If it’s credible reporting that I can’t debunk or a valid opinion that I hadn’t considered, then it’s information that goes into my evaluation about that candidate.
But the core problem with the “let’s not eat our own” comments is that they’re not well reasoned, to the point of being addle brained. Is the idea that we shouldn’t vet the choices we have? Do we just pretend that all of the candidates are swell, and go in and vote for the one we viscerally like on primary day? And then what? We just hope that all of the information we ignored so as not to “eat our own” isn’t used by republicans in the general?
Seriously?
That is the most inane thing I’ve ever heard.
