Whatever Happened To The Loyal Opposition?
By Doug Mataconis | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, General Politics, McCain, Republicans
Marshall Manson offers some timely advice to the supporters of whoever happens to lose the election today:
Challenging the legitimacy of an election is a serious thing to do. And with occasional exceptions, charges of fraud are almost always overblown and based on unreliable, anecdotal data.
Over the last few years, too many on both sides have gotten far too obsessed with lawyers, challenges, and allegations of impropriety. Perhaps it’s a result of the hangover from the Florida mess in 2000. But I hope that folks on both sides will act like adults this year and behave with a little grace. If your man loses — and one of them is sure to do so — don’t loosely accuse the other side of stealing it.
Whoever wins, he won’t be the worst President in history. Somehow, the republic will survive. Let’s keep things in perspective tonight as the results come in, and keep a tight rein on our worst instincts.
Agreed.
I fully expect Barack Obama to win tonight and, while I don’t agree with much of what he stands for and will likely be back here in a few months vehemently opposing everything he does during his first 100 days in office, he will be the President, and I’ll accept that.
If the right knows what’s good for it, they will to.
Somewhere along the way, this country lost the idea of what the British call the loyal opposition. The fact that you oppose someone politically doesn’t mean you have to hate them, or demonize them, or believe the most bizarre conspiracy theories about them. Barry Goldwater and John F. Kennedy were friends. Ronald Reagan seldom considered his political adversaries to be enemies, even if the sentiment wasn’t always returned.
It’s not that way today. For some supporters of John McCain, Barack Obama isn’t just a rival, he’s an enemy who will sell America out to socialism or radical Islam, or both in some bizarre ideological combination. For some supporters of Barack Obama, Republicans are conspiring to steal the vote.
It’s time we stopped that nonsense. You don’t have to agree with whoever the next President is, but you don’t have to hate them either.
Originally posted at Below The Beltway
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, General Politics, McCain, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 4th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Whatever happens, it certainly will be hard for the opposition in this country to “out-hate” the president as the left has done over the past 8 years.
November 4th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I think you underestimate the capabilities of Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, and Sean Hannity
November 4th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Jimmy.
That’s like blaming the wife for being beaten. The GOP has created the highly polarized political partisanship of the past 20 years by driving everything via wedge issues. Nonsense like flag burning and definining marriage in the constitution, the constant attacks on Clinton, driving abortion as the only issue, and now the whole Ayers, Wright, Obama Hussein the Muslim and Socialism garbage were all specifically designed to drive people to the left or right and erradicate the middle.
The GOP in general and Karl Rove’s campaign strategies were based on it.
Doug, I hope you’re right, but as long as their are people like Jimmy in the world who twist and distort reality for political gamesmanship we will always have hate.
November 4th, 2008 at 9:12 am
[...] Whatever Happened To The Loyal Opposition? [...]
November 4th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Only someone who suffers from highly selective amnesia could make the statement Jimmy did after the way the right went after Clinton.
November 4th, 2008 at 10:51 am
This radio show is about what is truly at stake in this election, and what we are TRULY voting for. This election can change the mindset of the entire country and could have an effect for years to come. Most people don’t think of it in this way. It’s very surprising. And either way you decide, you will at least be aware and understand the unspoken implications. If you like what you hear, please pass the link on to others who you may think might like it.
http://tinyurl.com/5znubc
November 4th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Yeah, Jimmy you’re off-base on this one. W presided over events that would have been divisive regardles of who was POTUS, but he also took a bad situation and made it horrendous by any objective standard. And I say this as someone who has never demonized him and who certainly doesn’t hate him. To deny that he deserved the vast majority of the criticism he’s received and to write it off to ideology is as good an example of the GOP disconnect as any I’ve seen this campaign.
November 4th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Funny how you didn’t read a lot of these sorts of things after the 2000 and 2004 elections.
It’s like being lectured on animal welfare by Michael Vick.
November 4th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Rich, there’s no doubt that there’s plenty of wild-eyed, firebreathing on the Left, and if Obama wins they’ll certainly be feeling their oats and making us all miserable. I think that saying that partisan attacks originated with Newt & Co. savaging Clinton in the 90s is also highly selective and basically pisses in the face of history and ample documentation that this is nothing new.
On the other hand, to say that Obama and McCain are not objectively stronger candidates than Bush and imply that those of us who strongly suspected he was a dud should have been penning placatory pieces similar to this post is dubious on your part. I feel completely entitled to the opinion that whoever wins this election will make a good POTUS. I never felt that W would be a good one and I think he’s borne that out. There’s no comparison to ‘00 and ‘04 imo with the possible exception of a GOP vice-presidential nominee who was equally insulting in substance.
And I don’t expect grace, but the chafing among moderate conservatives (the less said about the nutcases the better) on teh internets over the last week has been unseemly. If you hitch your wagon to an ideology, at least show some equanimity when the tide turns.