It’s a pleasant early November treat to watch Republicans attack each other, the media, and voters for the party’s unexpectedly poor performance in the 2022 midterms. But I have little doubt that, if things had gone the other way, Democrats would be doing much the same. Actually, now that I think about it, Democrats already began to do some of this, before the conversation was rudely sidetracked by the unexpected interruption of a happy outcome.
Generally, I think a clear-eyed self-assessment is a good thing. I also think that a losing election is mostly seen as an opportunity to settle old scores and whine that nobody listened to your wonderful ideas, and I’m quite happy to be mostly skipping that process on our side of the aisle this time around.
But this is a great opportunity to watch the Republicans have this conversation from the point of view of a disinterested observer, and I’d like to offer my thoughts. Basically: Republicans criticizing each other is always correct and good. Criticizing the media is a favorite pastime of both parties, and is uninteresting. But blaming voters is something else altogether.
Rather than a serious example, here’s a take from Hercules:
How bad do things have to get in Pennsylvania before voters put in a Conservative? Fetterman??? Really?!!!
— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) November 9, 2022
Anyway, I can say this because I’ve done it: the easiest and laziest thing to do when you lose an election is to blame the voters. It’s brain poison for anybody who takes winning elections seriously. Doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong, you need to respect voters and take them seriously. Sorbo, above, is baffled why people don’t already agree with him, because he’s a small-minded Xena also-ran, who lacks empathy or emotional intelligence. But you don’t have to be!
“I am correct, and people disagreeing with me means they must be stupid or don’t understand their own interests” is pure adolescent thinking, but it’s an extremely inviting ditch to fall into. You need to police your own thinking to avoid it. Again – I can say this because I’ve done it, as has probably everybody in this business. You won’t be able to convince these same people next time if, instead of trying to understand them, you call them names.
This absolutely doesn’t mean that voters are always right, by the way. It just means that they are not morons, and if they make a mistake, they do it for a reason. It’s your job, as an electoral professional to understand the reason: not just on a surface level, but ideally on an emotional level too. Learning and understanding those reasons makes you a much more effective political actor.
Although, of course, there’s an easier solution requiring a lot less introspection: win so many elections so you don’t need to worry about it at all.