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Of course. But on the other hand Clinton also doesn't have a squeaky past. When it comes down to it, you either (1) just let people vote for the candidate they
by lhnz 10y ago
Of course. But on the other hand Clinton also doesn't have a squeaky past.
When it comes down to it, you either (1) just let people vote for the candidate they prefer, or you (2) fight dirty by: censoring them, massaging negative narratives about their behaviour, lobbying their financial backers to stop supporting them, and eventually see if you can deny voters their right to vote for them (or try to force the candidate to step out from the race).
I honestly think that if we are to talk about disliking authoritarianism, we should aim for the former and not the latter. The fact is, if you have nearly 50% of people in your country voting for someone you hate, you're not going to just be able to shut it down by ignoring them: you're going to need to reach some happy medium (or at least something that tries to be this).
- archagon 10y agoI strongly believe that there is no dirtiness in saying "your candidate is repugnant and we want nothing to do with his high-profile supporters". Sorry about lobbing in a Godwin, but I feel it's appropriate here. I've been watching a lot of WWII documentaries lately and it struck me just how excited and happy Germans were to see Hitler come to power. Before going to war, he was considered by many around the world to be a strong, positive leader for a resurgent Germany — to the point where people were asking if maybe authoritarianism wasn't such a bad thing after all. Seeing that made me wonder: how exactly would we prevent such a thing from happening in the future? Within the confines of democracy, the best way, as far as I can tell, is to repeat loudly and confidently as soon as we see it: your candidate is terrible, this is the path to fascism, this mockery of politics is beyond the pale and cannot be supported by reasonable people. And this especially applies to supporters with influence and power.
- lhnz 10y agoIt's not dirty to merely express yourself, but it still might have unintended consequences. If you lose, and they turn out just to be a TV personality that is ineffectual politically it will hurt your credibility. And, if you win, maybe the republican party falls apart, and four years later you are up against a real hard-right party, like is seen in some European countries. I am personally far more worried about what will rise from the Alt-Right's ashes when he loses, than what will come to pass in the strange future in which he wins.