Ugly Politics is a Threat to Our Democratic Process
Dear Editor,
Why does the political process seem to bring the worst out in people? The ugliness of winning at all costs regardless of what you must do to win.
Citizens and candidates who put themselves on the line to embrace the democratic process, putting forth their ideas and plans for the future of our city, are fundamental and essential to the survival of Democracy. Candidates who try to change minds by resorting to scare tactics, arm twisting, and abusive rhetoric to thwart the civil actions, and I might add civil responsibility, of these citizens and candidates, are a threat to democracy.
When Candidates who are knocking on doors to get votes, are accosted in the streets and accused of being troublemakers that is not democracy. When Candidates receive phone calls being accused of putting candidates in the field to oppose other Candidates, that is not democracy. When candidates receive phone calls telling them not to do interviews, that is not democracy. Democracy allows a free and open discussion of ideas by candidates regarding what think is best for the community. To do anything to prevent that is not democracy. Physical encounters, social media posts, and phone calls denigrating opponents, scolding other candidates for perceived actions of support to other candidates and scolding citizens for supporting candidates, is not democracy. Campaigns won through such tactics do none of us any good and take us back to the days of the goon squads. For democracy to thrive we need to have a full and open process where candidates can put forth information regarding their ideas for the city’s future, their background, their skills, and their experience, winning or losing on the merit of that information alone.
Anything else, quite frankly, is Un-American
Ed Deveau
Beachmont
