I know this is a shock, but even your candidate isn't perfect. And I'm not talking about a philosophical, above-the-fray sorta imperfection: I mean they fail to act, they fail to lead. They fail to take a stand--or, worse, they step up and take the wrong stand. They vote wrong, they hire wrong, they look funny and smell weird.
This is true--and brace yourself for the stunner--of every single candidate. Yes, even the ones not running!
And when this happens, how do we respond? Well, I know how I respond: I write a diary about how other candidates suck harder. When my candidate stumbles, I investigate your candidate's shortcomings. When my candidate fails to act, I discuss your candidate's unwillingness to lead.
Or, a personal favorite, I change the subject. My candidate missed the boat on the Bankruptcy Bill? Well, look at your candidate's lack of message discipline! Ha-ha!
Here's my pledge. When my candidate sucks, I will do two things.
First, I will say, "Yeah, Captain Candidate is really disappointing on this. The Captain's still my preferred candidate for reasons I won't mention here--for fear of derailing the conversation--but this blows."
Second, I will contact my candidate and explain why this is a problem for me. Because, frankly, doing anything else--the misfiring snark, yelling 'hey, look over there!', the claims of victimization, circling the wagons--deeply disrespects myself and my candidate.
Sometimes our candidate sucks. When that happens, we gotta just say, 'Well, sometimes my candidate sucks. Still the best overall, but yeeps. That's not good.'
That fact that we jump in and endorse imperfect (read: actually existing) candidates is a wonderful thing. Far better than the "Bigmouth Leftblogger's Uncertainty Principle and Creed of Impartial Objectivity." I'd rather be embarrassed by passion than deadened by its lack.
But enough embarrassment is enough. And I'm already embarrassed by this diary. Shorter me: "Can't we all just get along?"
Trollrate my tipjar to make the diary disappear!