blatham wrote:But in the last year, you won't find a seriously negative comment that I've made about any of the whole works of them. Because that's the enemy's game. It is slime, it's innuendo, and it is self-defeating. If we like candidate A, then let's pump him/her up and try to demonstrate the talents and abilities we see.
Isnt that a surefire way to shut down all critical debate within one's own camp - even to shut down or at least instinctively limit one's own capacity to critically evaluate one's own side's flaws and actions?
It sounds like a sure way to shut down even justified criticisms of one's own side and candidate, including criticisms that could still highlight and warn of looming problems. When the whole primary process is
about probing and testing one's own potential candidates for potential flaws and problems so as to choose the best one available. If you dont scrutinize, test and criticize your own candidate now in this phase, you'll be ill-prepared for the criticisms, including justified criticisms, he or she will face from the other side in the general election campaign. I mean, the only preparation you've done for that will then be the defensive cramp of shouting foul play at whatever might come.
Of course one can counter that our ability to influence what candidate is chosen and what his/her actions and strategies will be is near an absolute zero, but then so is our ability to do any harm with whatever criticisms we might come up with.
I mean, I find this quite a surprising stance from you Blatham, even though it does make explicit something that I've often found awkward in a hard to define way in earlier posts of yours. I mean, you have always been at the forefront of rightly criticizing the conservatives here (and at large) for their strident instinct to close the rank at the cost of all and any critical self-evaluation. Both when it comes to the unity of their own party and movement and when it comes to their opinions about how we should all stand behind our country, president and army no matter what transpires about its actions in office or in Iraq - the "my country right or wrong" tack. You have always articulately criticised this mindset and argued that true patriotism, for example, is all about seeing and criticising one's own country's flaws and misdeeds as well, so as to make one's own country a better place and hold it to a higher standard. In the same way, you have mocked some of the fiercer conservatives here for being unable to openly and honestly review the actions of their own side with any critical awareness.
Yet that's exactly what you seem to advocate for here: whatever critical thoughts we might have about any of our candidates, let's keep them inside and stand in solidarity with them for the duration of the race. That argument seems reminiscent of conservatives decrying the actions of critical souls who dare criticise the country or its president or its soldiers actions while they are abroad - the whole thing about keeping the dirty linen inside and not embolding the enemy.
