Voting For? Or Voting Against?

A fair number of people say that when the opportunity comes to vote, they're going to be voting against Bush. Their reasons range from anger over the war to despair over the economy, but their reaction is to vote against Bush -- and since he isn't on the ballot this year (and won't be, ever again), they're going to vote against people who resemble him. Mostly, this means Republican. This is good news for the Democrats, but its not a very good reason to vote Democrat. Don't get me wrong: picking one over the other, odds are I'll start out favorably inclined to the Democratic point of view, and it takes a strong presentation by a Republican to make me change my mind. But I almost -- not quite, but almost -- don't want to win if the reason for winning is ideology. Think of this as the anti-Rove attitude: winning is important, but winning for the right reason is almost as important.

I think that its possible that Democrats will see the attitude of these people and assume they're a given, in the bag. I think its possible that they will see the attitude of life-long Democratic-ticket voters, and assume they're a given, in the bag. I think its possible, and damned likely, that they'll target the attitudes and hot buttons of the people who are considered 'in play' -- not rabid Republicans, not in the bag people -- and that will be the campaign they will want to run. I think that attitude is wrong. It is disrespectful to the intelligence of the voters. It is disrespectful to the entire political process. I believe the people have the attitude that they know what they want, and they know what they'd like; if they have to choose between what they want (a person with a given style, a given attitude, a given level of grit) and what they'd like (that person being a specific political party), they'll go with the first. Both if they can; the first if they have to choose. A woman who writes a blog which occasionally talks about politics in my state says she does not like our junior senator -- that would be Mr. Santorum, and I won't even attach an adjective to it -- but that this does not mean she will necessarily vote Democratic. She says that she is looking for a good, decent Republican to vote for, and only if she cannot find one will she vote Democratic. I agree with this attitude. I come at it from the other direction -- I want a Democratic to believe in, and only when I fail in that quest will I vote Republican -- but I agree with the key point: Good. Decent. It's unfortunate that those words don't normally find themselves in the same sentence as 'candidate', because those are the words I'll be looking for first.

Other words are important, too -- competent, effective, insightful. But I'll start with those two. And thats who I'll start thinking about when I'm voting. Voting for.