It’s the Negativity, Stupid
Watching all the negativity flying around the stage at the Democratic Town Hall Forum the other night, something struck me. Why, after watching Hillary and Bernie go after each other’s left-liberal throats, would anyone ever want to vote for either one of them? They had nothing but rotten things to say about the other. Hillary’s too cozy with Wall Street. Bernie’s too soft on the NRA and naive about negotiating with Iran. Hillary’s insufficiently progressive and takes obscene speaking fees from Goldman Sachs. Bernie’s expensive progressive ideas will never make it in the real world.
Watching all the negativity flying around the stage at the Democratic Town Hall Forum the other night, something struck me.
Why, after watching Hillary and Bernie go after each other’s left-liberal throats, would anyone ever want to vote for either one of them?
They had nothing but rotten things to say about the other.
Hillary’s too cozy with Wall Street.
Bernie’s too soft on the NRA and naive about negotiating with Iran.
Hillary’s insufficiently progressive and takes obscene speaking fees from Goldman Sachs.
Bernie’s expensive progressive ideas will never make it in the real world.
Etc. Etc.
The Democrat debate got so dirty that Hillary has had to call her pet attack dog David Brock in from the kennel and let him off his leash.
Brock is the nasty former right-wing hit man whose pro-Clinton super PAC has sent out emails equating Bernie Sanders with dead Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.
His PAC has also attacked Bernie for not including enough “people of color” in his nice feel-good TV ad featuring Paul Simon’s song “America.”
Somebody actually counted the blacks and Latinos in the video and declared that Bernie was insufficiently diversity-minded.
Now the dirty dogs in Brock’s pack are running ads calling for Sanders to release his medical records.
The Republicans presidential finger-pointers are just as negative, thanks mostly to attacker-in-chief Donald Trump.
Actually, since there are more attackers and attackees, and since the attacks are constant and usually more personal, and since Trump is mixed up in all of it, the GOP negativity is much more self-harmful.
It’s been hard to keep track of who’s been hitting whom in the Republican primary brawl, but here are just some helpful headlines from the Internet:
— Trump: Ted Cruz flip-flopped on birthright citizenship
— New Ted Cruz ad attacks Donald Trump’s ‘New York Values’
— Bush: Rubio, Cruz are followers, not leaders on Syria
— Carson questions authenticity of Trump’s faith
— Rubio hits Trump’s debate ‘theatrics’
— Trump hits Cruz on loans, citizenship: ‘Did he borrow unreported loans from Canadian banks?’
— Trump, Rubio and evangelicals target Cruz as Iowa caucus nears
— Kasich super PAC attacks Trump immigration plan
— Carly Fiorina repeats after girl: ‘Donald Trump’s a moron’
— Christie on Trump skipping GOP debate: Leaders have ‘got to show up’
— Pro-Bush super PAC hammers Rubio for credit card controversy
— Rand Paul: ‘Trump is a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag’
Rand Paul must have hired a new writer, probably a sophomore in high school. But what’s going on is not funny.
We’re all being played for suckers.
After we hear months of this nonstop Republican-on-Republican bashing, we’re supposed to forget about it and vote for one of these bums to be our next president?
They don’t like each other, for both good reasons and stupid reasons. But I bet half of the GOP candidates won’t have the stomach to vote for the nominee in the fall.
If you believe all their negative ads and what the candidates say about each other and their ideas, it makes sense. There’s not a damn person worth voting for.
Copyright ©2016 Michael Reagan
