# Is it really necessary to portray the election of the opposing candidate as the end of humanity?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-really-necessary-to-portray-the-election-of-the-opposing-candidate-as-the-end-of-humanity/631121>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [August 10, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-really-necessary-to-portray-the-election-of-the-opposing-candidate-as-the-end-of-humanity/631121 "2012-08-10T20:18:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 35

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**Author:** ![greenslime1951](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@greenslime1951](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenslime1951)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-really-necessary-to-portray-the-election-of-the-opposing-candidate-as-the-end-of-humanity/631121/35 "2012-08-13T07:04:39Z")

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> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> It would be both bad strategy and a lie to describe the Republican candidates like that. If someone is moral & ethical they aren’t going to be in a position of power within the party that the Republicans have become. They’ve demonstrated their incompetence; and with their anti-government focus, they are in fact dedicated to being incompetent on purpose. Someone who wants government to fail is not going to be a competent government official. The Republicans have also repeatedly demonstrated their total lack of interest in the best interests of either the country or the world. They want to make the world worse, not better, and are generally the cause of problems; never the solution.  
> This. An honest description of the Republicans is going to be highly insulting, because they really are just that awful.

This, like most of your posts, is unhelpful hyperbole. Like it or not, the Republicans are part of the political landscape. Demonizing and insulting them isn’t likely to produce constructive dialogue. In fact, rhetoric like yours underscores the problem I articulated at the start of this thread–each side calls the other incompetent, evil, etc. etc. etc., each hiding behind its ideology and treating extremism as if it were some sort of desirable commodity.

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