The divisive and mean-spirited back-biting of the current political campaigning is disturbing. And, the outright dishonesty of many of the negative TV ads is even more so. Both sides engage in these dirty tactics and neither can claim the moral high ground.
But having said that, what’s increasingly clear is that politicians following the Goebbels/Limbaugh/Rove/FauxNews/Hannity and Trump playbook are leading the race to the slimy bottom. Employing Goebbel’s strategy of repeating a simple lie often and with enough theatricality and mock-conviction to sell it, they spew the same patently hyperbolic and derogatory sound bites to pander to, manipulate and exploit the fears, biases and sociopathic tendencies of their base.
Take Walker Stapleton here in Colorado, for instance, who under the guise of fiscal responsibility repeatedly uses the words “radical and extreme” to denigrate Jared Polis. You hear the same Trumpish hogwash parroted and used by others of his ilk against Democratic candidates all across the country.
Polis and other Dems could just as easily, and perhaps more accurately, repeat the words “reactionary, regressive, and obstructionist” to describe Stapleton and others of the burgeoning hoard of ethically-challenged ”Trumpublican” automatons. But, they generally don’t. And that says something about the differing character of the two parties. Democrats, thankfully, still hold themselves to a higher ideal of what it means to be American.
The editors of the Durango Herald choose to believe Stapleton’s empty bipartisan promises, but endorsing him shows a naive blindness to the shameless Trumpish politics he represents. Wake up, Herald!
Robert N. Kimmick
Denver
