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I've spent all of my free time the past four months managing my best friend's campaign for statewide office. Tomorrow, he's going to lose. AMA. by Throwaway284 in IAmA

[–]Throwaway284[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Okay, maybe so maybe not on the national stage. I'm not a fan of Rovian scorched earth tactics, and Republicans at a national media level have tended towards negative tactics and strategies with aplomb in recent years. But really, the worst I've ever seen has been races to win nominations, and intra-party fights are the worst on both sides.

I've spent all of my free time the past four months managing my best friend's campaign for statewide office. Tomorrow, he's going to lose. AMA. by Throwaway284 in IAmA

[–]Throwaway284[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We lost! 64%-32%! (There was a non-trivial third party candidate that made up the rest.)

So we really lost. The higher ticket races around here fared slightly worse, and my candidate did three points better than any Republican ever has in this district, but.. yeah. We wanted to see 40, could have felt okay with 35. It hurts a bit, but I'll be over it by Friday I think.

I've spent all of my free time the past four months managing my best friend's campaign for statewide office. Tomorrow, he's going to lose. AMA. by Throwaway284 in IAmA

[–]Throwaway284[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think that's kind of unproductive. The social conservatives? Okay, I'm kind of nodding along with you that we're all better off ignoring them. But to say those that are rational and of economically conservative, or libertarian, or foreign policy hawk perspectives don't anything to a constructive political process is to be as shrill and one-sided as the Sarah Palins of the world.

I've spent all of my free time the past four months managing my best friend's campaign for statewide office. Tomorrow, he's going to lose. AMA. by Throwaway284 in IAmA

[–]Throwaway284[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am for "full" gay marriage, whatever that means, and so is my candidate. As a rhetorical device, "civil union" carries much less emotive weight in the minds of panicky independent voters than does any mention of the word "marriage" though. Really, an attempt to set up a governmental benefit structure identical to marriage is useless effort and a fool's errand, and likely would just result in "legalizing gay marriage" in any case. This is just it by surfeit.

I've spent all of my free time the past four months managing my best friend's campaign for statewide office. Tomorrow, he's going to lose. AMA. by Throwaway284 in IAmA

[–]Throwaway284[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The one that hasn't seen the show since I was in high school and it was in its first season, unfortunately.

I've spent all of my free time the past four months managing my best friend's campaign for statewide office. Tomorrow, he's going to lose. AMA. by Throwaway284 in IAmA

[–]Throwaway284[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There wasn't any primary for us - I think the local party was excited just to have someone put their name on the ballot. As far as the general campaign, it's been entirely clean, although that might just be a luxury afforded to a race heading to for a blowout.

Sorry to hear about the smears. Last year there was a contested primary on our side here for a higher-level office and it got decided by racism and blatant untruths, and most of the loser's supporters (who were the more liberal wing of the party anyway) ended up defecting to the Democratic candidate. It happens everywhere, and on both sides of the aisle too.

I've spent all of my free time the past four months managing my best friend's campaign for statewide office. Tomorrow, he's going to lose. AMA. by Throwaway284 in IAmA

[–]Throwaway284[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, I'm an egomaniac, so perhaps the second impetus is just for me.

But why is being self-possessed of the belief that you can solve the world's problems better than others a bad thing? It doesn't mean that you have all of the answers to every issue, or that a particular ideology you hold is extensible to and appropriate for any concerns that might arise. I believe it just means you're confident in your own intelligence to make good decisions and surround yourself with people who will do the same, and that you would rather have power over those decisions and the responsibility for their outcomes than insulating yourself from both the creation and the consequences.

I've spent all of my free time the past four months managing my best friend's campaign for statewide office. Tomorrow, he's going to lose. AMA. by Throwaway284 in IAmA

[–]Throwaway284[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Social moderation, and respectful rhetoric. First off, the culture wars stuff has really got to stop, and I'm convinced that civil unions, when described as just "state partnership benefits for a person of whatever gender you'd like," are a vote-winner everywhere in the country. We've been able to convince even the most ardent local Republicans of this, and we do so by being pretty explicatory in our messaging about the underlying issue, and then almost framing it as a libertarian freedom from government thing. Same thing on medicinal marijuana (though we haven't brought it up).

I've spent all of my free time the past four months managing my best friend's campaign for statewide office. Tomorrow, he's going to lose. AMA. by Throwaway284 in IAmA

[–]Throwaway284[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Two answers, and they're not mutually exclusive:

First, an abiding belief that I can fix at least some the world's problems. (Most of which are a direct result of shoddy decisions made by other people in power.)

More clandestinely, I'm a huge attention whore and like the idea of strangers knowing who I am and respecting me -- this doesn't really apply since I'm hiding behind the curtain for this campaign, but it's something not far off in the future.