I am frustrated.
I have watched a respectable lead from a respectable candidate (Northam) in the Virginia’s governor race evaporate in the last month to the point of the predictions this morning were that his Republican opponent Gillespie will win this race. Gillespie did this by going the ‘low blow’ route, this is the practice of using a societal issue (MS13 in this case) to paint a candidate into a corner that the candidate is too high minded or ethical to retaliate to. The charge is spurious and of course our candidate would never give safe harbor to MS13, any fool who thinks about it for more than one second can see that. But that is what Gillespie is alleging.
I’ve come to the epiphany that: In politics, winning the election is a tactic to gain power and advance an agenda. It is not the ultimate goal, governing is. Republicans are doing this very effectively because we are reluctant to treat elections as a tactic and stoop to their level. Well, if we ever expect to be in power again we will need to stoop to that level to get to our goal and get our agenda started. We must be willing to fight in the mud to paint the picture of Republicans for what they are.
Northam did not use some of the following ideas to associate Gillespie with Trump:
- Gillespie wants to stop the Muller investigation, Therefore Gillespie is a Russian lover.
- Gillespie wants to increase everyone’s healthcare costs (he supports Trump).
- Gillespie thinks that ancient roads and freeways are good.
- Gillespie wants more toll roads throughout Virginia.
- As a consultant does Gillespie have three Passports like consultant Paul Manifort?
- Gillespie is a Trump puppet and will paralyze Virginia government.
- Gillespie supports spending billions of your tax dollars for a boarder wall
These statements are all speculation and conjecture. Are they absolutely true? Who cares? They are just as true as Gillespie’s MS13 campaign is. These statements reflect items that voters are deeply concerned about, and could plausibly be associated with future Gillespie positions or actions.
Democrats need to employ the Tactic of being able to use ‘future conjecture’ about the Republican candidate to paint them in as negative light as possible to win a Tactical victory of a election.
Democrats need to view an election as a tactic to obtain actual power, and act accordingly. Governing is the Strategic goal. Somewhere we have lost sight of that.