Comment by mrangle | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mrangle | Hacker News Reader

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No one on either side is going to see opposition investigations, prosecutions, and tactics as legitimate. They only make a candidate "flawed" in the eyes of those who already viewed them as flawed. For everyone else, its even a net gain because it reinforces authenticity. Which may be the hottest commodity in Washington. If anything is the opposite of "flawed" in the world of politics, it is "authentic".

And if there are going to be these extreme tactics, they have to work the first time to work at all. Politically speaking. In order to not look extremely inauthentic.

Maybe the RNC and DNC shouldn't have gone so hard in the paint starting in 2015, if they wanted anything done now to not have the oppposite intended effect.

It doesn't matter if he lost once. There isn't an authentic candidate to take his place. Many on the Right would rather see Joe Biden or even Hillary Clinton in office than Nikki Haley. Because at least they wouldn't be ruling inauthentically in the name of conservative voters.

I don't get it. The authenticity overreaction is weird to me. Like something immature youngsters would be concerned with.

I can help you. Authenticity is a synonym for trust, in the context of elections. Its the core of voting preference. That is, the candidate who wins is the one who the voters best trust to represent them.

Inauthentic candidates are seen as less trustworthy to do so. To varying degree. In other words, they are seen to be liars to varying degree. That is, inauthentic. Now you've caught up on how the American mind works in elections.

In the context of how the Get Trump Witch Hunt, ongoing since 2015, has affected eelections going forward: voters are now prone to see such unusual behavior from the opposition as a marker of candidate authenticity. Such is the nature of democracy poisoning actions.

In other words, if a candidate is not subjected to roughly equal treatment, then they will be widely seen as less authentic (more aligned with the opposing party than someone who is subject to it). This was obviously going to be the case going forward, beginning in 2016-17.

Which is a horrific situation for democracy.

To wit, in January 2024, Trump's RNC opposition have degraded themselves to appeals to the supposed fact that the opposition hates them less and therefore they will be more effective. They largely don't (at least effectively) sell themselves on authentic behavior. Possibly because they lack the actual conviction to sell it. Instead, they are essentially tacking toward inauthencity as their primary sales pitch. As a result, they don't stand a snowflake's chance if voters are the determining factor in a head to head primary.

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