Cause or Candidate?

I received an excellent comment on BeeLine's last blog post from reader Sharon J. in Georgia.

In my last post, I argued that the Republican loss in the Georgia Senate race between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker had more to do with what is "Baked In The Cake" in that state from a demographic and identity politics perspective than any other factor.

I said that it was fair to cast blame at Walker, Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell or RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel for the loss but the demographic and identity politics in the state made it unlikely that any other Republican could have won this race against the incumbent Warnock.

This is Sharon J.'s comment.

It is an excellent comment and one that may very well be correct.

The problem is we will never know one way or the other.

What I do know is that any other Republican candidate would not have had Walker's name id to start with. 

That would have cost any other candidate millions of dollars to buy.

Any other Republican candidate would have also faced the fact that they would have been outspent by over $100 million like Walker was.

Any other Republican candidate would have also been attacked viciously and made out to be a monster as the Democrats do in any consequential campaign.

Sharon J. makes one other comment that is 100% correct.

"Candidate quality matters." "I hope we can start recognizing that we need leaders of character on both sides of the aisle."

I would not stop at character. We need candidates that demonstrate the ability to do the job. Candidates that are mentally and physically fit and have the energy to represent us. Candidates that are willing to earn the vote of the electorate. Candidates who do not misrepresent who they are and what they really believe in order to get elected.

On both sides of the aisle.

Unfortunately, this is another factor in elections today that is baked in the cake.

There are a significant number of Republican voters who apply these standards.

It is rare that you will find any Democrat voter do the same.

Democrat voters value the cause as more important than the candidate.

They have proven that they will overlook almost any flaw in a candidate in favor of the overall cause of electing Democrats.

That is not true of a share of Republican voters. They are willing to sacrifice the candidate for the cause.

The problem is that when one side follows one set of standards and the other side a different standard, you are going to get asymmetrical results.

For example, if we were following the standard that Sharon advocates it should be no surprise that Walker lost. Questions were raised on whether he was fit for the job.

However, John Fetterman should have surely lost to Dr. Oz based on the same standard.

Fetterman was barely able to string a sentence together during the campaign. His one debate performance (he only did one reluctantly) was judged by many to be the worst in recent political history.

Here is an example of what I am talking about.

This opinion column admits that Fetterman's debate showed he was not up to the job. However, the writer state that it doesn't matter because "on the merits" he is better than Oz. 

What "merits" are those? It is the liberal/progressive cause.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/27/john-fetterman-dr-oz-pennsylvania-senate-midterms

In addition, there is no way that Katie Hobbs should have beaten Kari Lake in Arizona's gubernatorial race base on a candidate standard.

Hobbs refused to debate Kari Lake and was invisible to the media and most of the voters for a good part of the campaign.

Even The New York Times published an article titled, "Where's Katie'? two weeks before the election.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/21/us/az-governor-katie-hobbs-kari-lake.html

That race was reminiscent of the Trump-Biden race in 2020 where Biden hid in his basement and Trump crisscrossed the country at large rallies asking for the voter support.

It did not matter in Arizona and it did not matter in 2020 with Biden.

Biden's deficiencies are in full view now but it does matter a whit to the Democrats.

The cause is more important than the candidate.

This is baked into the cake and will continue to put Republicans at an advantage in general elections contests as long as these asymmetrical standards continue.

I wish this was not the reality.  Unfortunately, it is.

Sharon J, is correct about what should matter to voters.

However, as long as Democrats keep prioritizing the liberal/progressive cause above the candidate, or the cause of the country, my suggestion to Republicans is that you have little choice but to focus on the cause rather than the candidate in all general elections.

Primary elections are useful in that they allow you to vote for the candidate that will best represent you and what you want to be your cause in the general election.

However, in the general election, you realistically only have a binary choice.

Do you support their cause or your cause (or some variation of your preferred cause)?

What is clear in today's political environment is their cause is going to be miles away from your cause.

This is the way Democrats think and vote today.

The cause is all that matters. The candidate matters not one bit.

This is also baked in the cake.

Ignore it at your own peril if you are a Republican or independent that still thinks the country is worth saving.