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Scoundrel Candidates

This is an off-year but there are still some important elections going on. I try to follow the overall coverage as best I can. There are some candidates out there who I can't describe without using the word scoundrel, and I thought I would try to articulate why.

  1. Competition involves claiming that you are the better candidate. Scoundrels try to make you think worse of the opponent and her/his supporters, because they think that putting others down is the best way to lift themselves up.
  2. Scoundrels campaign for other jobs (school board, public health director, etc.) in hopes that you won't notice that they aren't campaigning for governor or mayor or whatever job the election is actually for.
  3. Scoundrels raise unsupported accusations against their opponents at the last minute hoping that there won't be time for them to defend themselves.
  4. Scoundrels work very hard to bring race up whether or not they try to hide that fact.
  5. Scoundrels say outrageous things in hopes of being quoted.
  6. Scoundrels will campaign against people who aren't in the race, as long as they are being vilified by the national party.
Insofar as members of the media do not point out these things they are co-opted by scoundrels.

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