.jpg)
March 25, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette, Citizens who choose to support, or oppose, a political candidate using a letter to the editor venue should always keep one thing in mind. Most people don’t care what you think or who you are voting for. Your enthusiasm or disdain for a candidate is a personal opinion. Supporting a candidate usually indicates your preference for a political party and the ideology they stand for. Supporting your candidate with factual examples can be useful information. Supporting your candidate by offering ridiculing and unfounded accusations against their opponent and his family is rarely perceived as a reliable argument.
James Carville has recently come out in support of a strategy known as “wet work.” This is a euphemism for murder or assassination. Carville encourages Democrat supporters to write letters to newspapers in an attempt to destroy Republican candidates by any means. Hopefully the politically engaged citizens of Rockbridge County will exercise their freedom of expression devoid of malicious innuendo.
When you oppose a political candidate based on perceived failure, you state your opinion. When you maliciously insult a candidate and their family, you are also insulting your neighbors who support that person, either inadvertently or by intention. Your personal attacks on their candidate will guarantee their energized response at the ballot box.
The November elections are seven months away. We can choose to insult each other’s candidates using the lowest form of expressing a disagreement; or we can engage in an informative, intellectual and robust debate. ANNE RUSSEK Natural Bridge
