Let's put less emphasis on the less important.

Candidates for elected office should not be held accountable for the (alleged) sins of their parties or their predecessors.


Diane Denish is not responsible for the sins of any other Democrat. She is not even responsible for Bill Richardson's.





Janice Arnold-Jones is not responsible for George Bush's sins, nor for Allen Weh's, nor Darren White's, of nor any the other of the good ol' boys that apparently run the NMGOP.

She is not responsible for anything Rush Limbaugh says, nor Sean Hannity, nor Michael Savage. She is not accountable for any misconduct at public health reform town hall meetings.

Candidates are necessarily attached to political parties.
But most fundamentally they are individual human beings,
with different priorities, different skill sets, and different intentions.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could elevate the level of the discourse from the unimportant to the really important?

It seems to me that, if you have a decent plan, you can sell the
plan by explaining the plan; period.

We need to start holding candidates accountable for every effort they make to divert the discussion from the important to the unimportant, simply to hide the inadequacy of their plans, their skill sets, and/or their intentions.

By holding ourselves accountable to the same standard.




photos Mark Bralley