Voting against the Brady Bill versus voting for the Iraq War Resolution?

[BainsBane]

44. Absolutely

People insist criticism is supposed to raise attention of issues for candidates, yet when it comes to someone they decide they like, they will hear none of it. This brand of politics that makes some individuals heroes above reproach and others the embodiment of all ills is simplistic. Do people care about real issues or just finding a figure head? I have never understood a view of politics, history, or society more generally that focuses on individuals above broader social forces. It strikes me as about next to nothing. Either people care about human life and gun control or they don't. Either promoting corporate interests is bad or it's not. Merchants of death are not better than bankers. In fact they are worse, in my view, because murder is worse than usury.

People discuss their hatred (and it is hatred) for Clinton rather than issues. They project rather than examining voting records. They discuss Greenwald and Snowden as individuals, focusing on endless trivia, and forsake the important issue about the NSA and the conflict between privacy and national security. They like Wikileaks so they assume Assange must be a saint and shouldn't be held responsible for legal charges of sexual assault. What is lost in all of this is any semblance of principle, principles flung out the window in a second if it conflicts with their views of a particular individual. That's not a concern for social reform or economic justice; it's cult of personality for and against, nothing more.

Now I can see how people can weigh the pros and cons on various issues and decide in Sanders favor. But to claim any concern about a voting record is "piling on" or somehow illicit is weak and unprincipled. It's like when people refuse to discuss public financing because they want to make it all about their antipathy for a single candidate. Meanwhile, money continues to corrupt government and they could care less as long as one person is kept out of the White House. There are issues far more pervasive than a single candidate, election, or presidency, yet people insist on making every discussion as small as possible.