They say politics is war without guns. But even war has rules. And so, too, should campaigns. The first rule should be “Put community first.” In other words, campaigns should not pit one group against another, should not incite fear and anger among the voters, and should not lay waste to the very population a candidate seeks to represent.
Now that the election is over, it’s time for reflection. Not on why one candidate won and another lost. Not on what might have garnered a few more votes. Not on who voted and who didn’t. It’s time to ask ourselves what kind of community we want to be. It struck me that the election was immediately followed by the nation’s holiest holidays, Passover and Easter. It is during these holidays that we celebrate unity and peace. And I wondered how it was possible to go from a campaign so devoid of those values to holidays that so embrace them.
I’m not suggesting candidates shouldn’t criticize their opponents’ records, opinions, and actions. But I am suggesting that to turn one group against another invites lasting discord in the electorate. To accuse groups who want to work with developers to obtain ball fields of being pro-development; to hint that those who seek safe pathways to schools want to ruin our rural character; to claim that those who support affordable and senior housing favor high density development simply pit voter against voter instead of candidate against candidate.
And when the campaign is over, those groups are left divided and angry and the remaining electorate so alienated they don’t want to vote at all. That might explain why fewer and fewer vote. If we want a healthy community, we must demand that future candidates make war on each other, not on the voters. Because, when a campaign loses the core values we celebrate in churches and synagogues, it pollutes the air with an unhealthy, corrosive acid that the community is forced to breath.
Sharon Barovsky