Not sure if anyone’s noticed, but today a bunch of former Warren staffers and surrogates are unleashing all their pent up rage on Twitter, settling scores they’ve clearly wanted to settle for a long, long time. I’m not going to post the tweets because I don’t want to stir people up, you can go on Twitter and find them yourselves, they’re identifiable by their liberty green avatars (hint: search for “Warren staff” or “Warren staffers”).
While some of you might think what they’re doing now is petty and vindictive, I look at it differently. Elizabeth Warren’s staffers and surrogates have been notable for their remarkable self-discipline and relentless positivity and dignity of conduct throughout this campaign. They have maintained strict, almost uniform silence with regard to attacking other campaigns and candidates all campaign long.
Their discipline and self-restraint has been truly astonishing considering what they had to put up with at times (here’s the staffer who had to read all the replies to Warren’s tweets), and while there have been some asshole Warren supporters here and there, by and large I can’t think of any truly toxic prominent Warren supporters or surrogates. It’s not that they were lacking in passion, this was a campaign that was rooted in deep and abiding concern for issues and people. But they’ve clearly taken after the example set by the candidate and the campaign itself and have admirably kept their emotions and impulses in check.
It’s abundantly clear that Warren explicitly set the tone and made it known how she wanted her staffers and supporters to conduct themselves, and almost to a person they followed suit. The fact that only now that the campaign is over for them are Warren staffers and surrogates finally venting their feelings is a testament to their discipline, the culture of the campaign, and the leadership of their candidate.
It also shows that a candidate can indeed influence how her team and supporters conduct themselves. It’s one of the reasons why I was so proud to support the Warren campaign, that throughout the campaign they didn’t stoop to the level of their detractors, didn’t smear anyone, didn’t engage in petty squabbles on social media, didn’t retweet or favorably cite objectionable material put out there by objectionable people.
And it proves false the notion that a candidate has no control over what his or her supporters say and do. The candidate, if he or she has the will to do so and the respect of her supporters and staff, absolutely can exercise great influence over how his or her campaign and supporters conduct themselves. Other candidates today and in the future would do well to follow the example set by Warren and her campaign.