While this editorial is mostly addressed to the sort of large donors that contribute to election campaigns, the question it asks is relevant to just about anyone who cares about supporting candidates. Namely: How do you use your support to help build a less polarized political environment?
Specifically, the editorial points at the donations the largest donors provide, and the fact that almost all of those donors provide the majority of those donations to a particular side. It can come up with a decent reason why - most of these donors care about particular issues - but accuses those donors of giving up on too many other concerns about their candidates in order to maximize their influence on a particular point.
I think there's one detail that's missing, though - I suspect many of these people simply won't donate in a race where their side's candidate is too extreme for their tastes. I'm not sure I agree with the notion that anyone who doesn't support moderate candidates in both parties is making things worse.
However, I do agree with the idea that we should be asking our politicians how open to compromise they are, how willing to work with the other side they are, and whether they've thought about why or how they might change their mind on any particular issue. Those large donors have a lot more power than many others to really force candidates to answer those questions, but any of the rest of us can certainly give it a shot as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment