My plan for today was to write about the boondoggle in Alaska. For those not in the know, there are two Dan Sullivans, one of whom is the incumbent, running as Republican on the ballot for US Senate. This week, reports surfaced that the Democratic opponent Mary Peltola’s campaign was allegedly responsible for recruiting the extra Dan in an effort to confuse voters and peal away votes from the Republican incumbent.
They almost succeeded.
It’s not the first time that a campaign has engaged in dirty tricks in order to confuse voters and to gain ground for their own candidate. There have been spoiler candidates in the past.
I think this is the first time that they’ve used one with the exact same name. It’s dirty and possibly illegal and everyone involved should be held accountable.
See, I am an equal-opportunity opinion writer, calling out bad behavior on both sides of the aisle.
I think I have been pretty level in my criticism of both Democrats and Republicans. Over the past months, I have been increasingly critical of the Trump administration and my conservative friends have certainly made my life hell for it.
My issue has been that what he promised when I voted for him for the third time, he has done the exact opposite.
I don’t like being lied to.
What I am seeing from this second Trump administration is that it has become a giant middle finger to all those who voted him out in 2020. The problem is that that middle finger is punishing those of us who supported him too.
And I’m tired of being a pawn in the political machinations of a narcissist.
I also take issue with our Commander-in-Chief publicly commenting on a woman’s ass. It is sexual harassment in every definition and if it were done in a workplace, he would be fired.
I shared a post about Trump’s open disrespect of women that opened up a back-and-forth debate that was beyond anything I could have imagined. We ended up on every spoke of the political wheel with my liberal and conservative friends arguing back and forth for a week.
And when I shut down one of the MAGA contributors, I was accused of abandoning my conservative values, shutting down his free speech in violation of my own absolutist principles, and given a “peace out”.
I have shared extensively over these last months about my deprogramming. It has not been an easy process, to say the least. And those to whom I’ve tried most to explain my reasoning are the ones who have consistently shut me down.
My liberal friends have never done that to me when I have defended my conservative viewpoints. They listen and we discuss.
So what is the difference?
I don’t do canned scripts and talking points. If you give me the same tired points, spewing the script of your party, I’m going to shut you down.
I can tell every time if you are merely repeating the words someone has told you to say or if you have seriously considered your position and know your arguments. If the person you are engaging with brings up a point and you redirect them to a different point, you’re not actually debating, you’re propagandizing.
I’m the same way with religious discussions. Don’t tell me just what you’ve been taught. Show me you’ve actually read the Bible for yourself and studied what it says. Demonstrate that your beliefs and your faith are real to you.
And if you are arguing certain points, make sure that I can’t disprove them with a quick Google search. That shows me you haven’t actually done the work.
I’m never going to shut you down if you give me a well-thought-out argument with evidence of your points. What I won’t do is engage in emotional rationalizations. What I won’t do is to engage in a pseudo-debate that is nothing but propagandist talking points. What I won’t do is to accept attacks on my character because I’ve had a change in my perspective.
It’s not about shutting down free speech. It’s about promoting free speech that is worth the listen.
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