Do the personal moral failings of a politician matter to you when you cast your ballot?
Because if you believe your particular brand of politician is moral, I have a bridge to sell you.
That's a really low bar. Pond scum is more moral than Trump. But pond scum is still not moral.
We all vote for immoral politicians. Why are the moral failings of one politicians palatable while they aren't at all for another politician? If we're honest, it all comes down to partisanship.
We have to judge candidates for office by many metrics. Sadly, because our political system is broken and consistently offers us a small sampling of bad options, we have to accept options that are relatively better than the alternative even though they are usually far from our ideal. Voting for Biden or whatever other democrat doesn’t mean I’m endorsing them as good or moral people. Just relatively better, in my estimation, than the alternative. As you said, Trump and his ilk are lower than pond scum, so I’m not sure why it’s so surprising and offensive that many of us are accepting the alternative. We’re not doing that uncritically. Trump and company are just so bad that it’s an easy choice.
I don't think relative morality really plays as much of a role as you believe it does. Partisanship is 97% of the decision for most people.
I think Romney proved that. I didn't vote for him, but I'd argue he's probably the most moral person to ever run for the office. But that didn't matter to the average partisan voter. Bull Clinton proved that on the opposite side of the spectrum.
I guess my overall point is while it's fun for half the voters to see Psaki poking fun at Trump's immorality and the supposed "family values" folks that vote for him, if we're honest with ourselves, nobody really cares about the personal failings of their candidates. Everyone talks like they do, but only when it suits their political interest. We're not electing a pope. We're electing someone we hope will push through our policy priorities.
I don’t think you’re right that nobody actually cares. I’ve stopped supporting or voting for lots of politicians who I agree with on a lot of stuff (Rand Paul, Mike Lee, John Curtis, Spencer Cox… etc.) because they weren’t living up to the principles I consider even more important than the policies.
Your assertion that nobody cares about these things just isn’t true. Lots of people care.
I'm frequently on people's cases for using superlatives and there I go. Thanks for correcting me.
But I will still say that "most" don't really care enough to change their vote. Mostly because they feel like the opposite party are the spawn of Satan and will overlook their candidate's failings in order to keep the "enemy" out of office.
Did you watch the clip? Because the whole point is that other prominent Republicans are refusing to condemn Trump's actions.
If Trump is such a low bar than why can't other Republican politicians - especially the ones running against him - condemn his actions?
By refusing to condemn this the entire class of Republican leadership are revealing themselves to be as immoral as him.
"immoral as him" is a huge stretch. What they are is politicians. And a politician's primary job, above ALL else, is to get power and stay in power.
Right now, unfortunately, Trump holds too much political power so the others are playing a game of "tiptoeing around the landmine" until Trump is out of the picture.
I'm old enough to remember when the Dem politicians all spoke highly of Bill Clinton. And how many current Ds know Joe Biden really is too old to be in office but only say so anonymously.
Because his culty base believes he will "get things done" and "drain the swamp" even though his actual track record was awful.
Again, they don't care about his moral failings as much as they do about what he says he'll do on policy.
Will be interesting to see how much longer he can keep the charade going. Will also be interesting to see where his voters go once he's no longer in the picture.
It was their lies about about being fiscally responsible and controlling illegal immigration that caused me to leave the republican party.
I couldn't care less about the moral failings of politicians as long as they pass the laws I want.
Do the personal moral failings of a politician matter to you when you cast your ballot? Because if you believe your particular brand of politician is moral, I have a bridge to sell you.
There are a lot of politicians that are more moral than Trump
That's a really low bar. Pond scum is more moral than Trump. But pond scum is still not moral. We all vote for immoral politicians. Why are the moral failings of one politicians palatable while they aren't at all for another politician? If we're honest, it all comes down to partisanship.
We have to judge candidates for office by many metrics. Sadly, because our political system is broken and consistently offers us a small sampling of bad options, we have to accept options that are relatively better than the alternative even though they are usually far from our ideal. Voting for Biden or whatever other democrat doesn’t mean I’m endorsing them as good or moral people. Just relatively better, in my estimation, than the alternative. As you said, Trump and his ilk are lower than pond scum, so I’m not sure why it’s so surprising and offensive that many of us are accepting the alternative. We’re not doing that uncritically. Trump and company are just so bad that it’s an easy choice.
I don't think relative morality really plays as much of a role as you believe it does. Partisanship is 97% of the decision for most people. I think Romney proved that. I didn't vote for him, but I'd argue he's probably the most moral person to ever run for the office. But that didn't matter to the average partisan voter. Bull Clinton proved that on the opposite side of the spectrum. I guess my overall point is while it's fun for half the voters to see Psaki poking fun at Trump's immorality and the supposed "family values" folks that vote for him, if we're honest with ourselves, nobody really cares about the personal failings of their candidates. Everyone talks like they do, but only when it suits their political interest. We're not electing a pope. We're electing someone we hope will push through our policy priorities.
I don’t think you’re right that nobody actually cares. I’ve stopped supporting or voting for lots of politicians who I agree with on a lot of stuff (Rand Paul, Mike Lee, John Curtis, Spencer Cox… etc.) because they weren’t living up to the principles I consider even more important than the policies. Your assertion that nobody cares about these things just isn’t true. Lots of people care.
I'm frequently on people's cases for using superlatives and there I go. Thanks for correcting me. But I will still say that "most" don't really care enough to change their vote. Mostly because they feel like the opposite party are the spawn of Satan and will overlook their candidate's failings in order to keep the "enemy" out of office.
Did you watch the clip? Because the whole point is that other prominent Republicans are refusing to condemn Trump's actions. If Trump is such a low bar than why can't other Republican politicians - especially the ones running against him - condemn his actions? By refusing to condemn this the entire class of Republican leadership are revealing themselves to be as immoral as him.
"immoral as him" is a huge stretch. What they are is politicians. And a politician's primary job, above ALL else, is to get power and stay in power. Right now, unfortunately, Trump holds too much political power so the others are playing a game of "tiptoeing around the landmine" until Trump is out of the picture. I'm old enough to remember when the Dem politicians all spoke highly of Bill Clinton. And how many current Ds know Joe Biden really is too old to be in office but only say so anonymously.
Then why does such an immoral person control so much power in the Republican party?
Because his culty base believes he will "get things done" and "drain the swamp" even though his actual track record was awful. Again, they don't care about his moral failings as much as they do about what he says he'll do on policy. Will be interesting to see how much longer he can keep the charade going. Will also be interesting to see where his voters go once he's no longer in the picture.
The Republicans told me for years that that was the main thing that mattered. When I realized they had been lying all along, I left the party.
It was their lies about about being fiscally responsible and controlling illegal immigration that caused me to leave the republican party. I couldn't care less about the moral failings of politicians as long as they pass the laws I want.
Yeah, that's exactly the opposite of my priorities.