ReadyToUseBoth
6mo ago
The problem isn't the voters making poor choices, the problem is the local party "saving democracy from the voters" by endorsing in the primary, only to disappear or be ineffective in the general. I'm all for the primary process being handled through voting among all party members (though I do think added qualifications for party registration aren't a bad idea), but for the party to endorse in the party primary is to ruin the point of the primary.
In my view the proper role for the party apparatus is to present the primary candidates to the voters as clearly as possible, and then after the voters make their choice they help the chosen nominee win in the general. If we're going to have candidates running for the Republican nomination as the "endorsed Republican candidate" then why have a primary at all? ((One can of course equally blame the voters for making the choices they did, but that's a road to nowhere))
ReadyToUseBoth
6mo ago
It's not just issues, it is tone and emphasis. Launching a school board campaign that puts (largely hypothetical) trans kids front and center is running a narrow campaign on aggression and identity politics. Running for county executive on a platform of investigating election fraud is putting the actual business of the county second behind national issues (which the vast majority of voters don't really care about in that case anyway). The candidates we're seeing don't carry and groom and present themselves well, they don't have long resumes of accomplishments to point, they don't have pedigrees and when they do they run against them rather than on them. That's the kind of thing we're having problems with.
A lot of it is focusing on good governance and emphasizing concrete actions over vague culture war issues. The strategy question isn't just about what you want to do, it's what you want to talk about, what you put center stage and crow about vs what you do quietly backstage and dump in a Friday afternoon procedural news release.
At the county council level right up to the federal level, reduce the grip of government, make it easier to build a shed or start a business. Procedural reform, by which for every new rule put in place, one old rule is removed. That can be instituted throughout levels of government: for every new ordinance, one old ordinance has to go. Ratchet it up to two ordinances, and now you're shrinking government.
At the school board level, reduce administrative waste and extracurricular bloat to cut costs and ultimately taxes. Improve test scores.
If the competency slate for school board also puts in place a minor rule on where kids go to the bathroom, great, but don't make it the centerpiece of why they're running for office and everything else an afterthought.
ReadyToUseBoth
6mo ago
Yes. The mailers were from the "_____ County Republican Committee" which also published the endorsements on their website. I went to the meetings where local Republican leaders chose to endorse these candidates (I was there to support other candidates). No shenanigans here.
ReadyToUseBoth
6mo ago
Petty Local Political Whining
In my state this is an off-off-year election, meaning that only local and non-headliner state positions are up for election. No congress, no senate, no state reps, no governor, no president. Turnout tends to be smaller, and local issues are less swamped by national ones.
Our County Republican Committee spent thousands in the primary this year, essentially picking one Republican candidate over another. Accusing Republican school board incumbents who didn't make Trans Kids their #1 issue of being RINOs and endorsing candidates who ran on a platform of removing books from the school library. Scandal-wracked Judicial candidates who took strong Pro-Life positions publicly were endorsed over candidates with stronger records who stayed quiet on controversies. County council races were handed to MAGA candidates who promised to "look into" election integrity. They picked the winners in every primary race, endorsing farther right candidates over moderates, specifically sending out mail telling voters "not to be fooled" by candidates running the Republican primary who weren't "real" Republicans.
Ronald Reagan's famous Eleventh Commandment, which read "thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican," was not followed.
And now we're just a couple weeks out from the General, and from the local party apparatus it has been CRICKETS. No mail, no TV ads, no coordinated door to door volunteers, no slates, no billboards. The closest they've gotten was a little postcard saying something along the lines of "Hey, actually, mail in voting is pretty cool and not at all fraudulent, you should try it."
And I'm FURIOUS, because this is a total betrayal and reversal of their role. The party endorsing in the primary election ruins the point of a primary election. The whole idea of a primary is that the voters, rather than the party, get to decide who the nominee will be. Plenty of blame to put on the moron sheep voting in these primaries, who voted the party line in an internal party election. But even worse is then failing to follow through and provide resources for the candidates you picked. Sending out mail on their behalf. Coordinating so that every candidate goes out and knocks on doors, and every candidate that goes knocking has literature for every other candidate to hand out. Providing cover so that candidates don't have to take controversial stands publicly and can instead couch it in oblique dog whistles. Giving the kind of support that makes up for the local newspapers running aggressive stories about every R candidate.
Now they've hung their radical picks for candidates out to dry, and there's a very good chance Republicans get shellacked in the general. Which might not have happened had more moderate candidates been chosen, but to choose more radical candidates and then fail to support them is malpractice. If this pattern is repeating in local Republican parties across the country, the party is likely entering a dark period. It's the Iron Law of Institutions, instituted as organizational policy. You can't win when you force your candidates to play to the extremes, then fail to support them against your actual opponents.
If you are looking for commiseration, you have it. That sucks dude. Getting stood up is the fucking worst. That said, if you're looking for advice, here's my $.02
What you're seeing is the real-time adaptation of women against common dating advice for men. This is constantly going on, any standard advice faces adaptations against it. The standard issue advice given to men for online dating for years now has been text as little as possible before setting up an in-person date, because texting without getting a date is degrading and demoralizing and wastes your effort. If she says no to a date, you stop texting her.
The adaptation on the part of women has been to accept the date immediately, and repent at leisure. Because men have stopped chatting before a date, but women want to get to know you more before agreeing to a date, the strategy is to say yes to the date and just cancel it if she isn't feeling it. Which gets us back to where things were before men adopted the strategy of asking for a date immediately.
So if you want to avoid getting stood up, you have to up your texting game. You have to try for more engagement prior to meeting in person. Wait longer before asking her out. Have more interesting conversations before meeting. Have her really wanting to meet you.
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