According to reports from The Daily, two more Democratic representatives have announced their plans to skip the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina this summer. New York Democratic Representatives Bill Owens and Kathy Hochul are the latest to announce they will not attend after Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Sen. Joe Manchin and Rep. Nick Rahall, a trio of West Virgina Democrats, all decided it would be best to try to keep whatever distance they could from the President.
Although all of these legislators have decided not to attend, none have completely withdrawn support for the President, even though they have disagreed with some of his decisions. The one thing all of these Democrats have in common are constituencies which are mainly caucasian, in less densely populated areas that historically lean conservative.
This has led many to question whether the decision not to attend the convention was a smart move to court independents and moderate conservatives, or a move that is damaging to party unity which creates a negative perception of a candidate's loyalty and the President's ability to unify and lead.
So, is skipping the convention a wise choice for both the candidates and the party as a whole? It's certainly a better decision than going, but the effects will likely be minimal. President Obama has become such a lightning rod for partisan attacks and accusations of socialism, that simply not attending is unlikely to impress many undecided or conservative voters.
Those who have tried to pretend that this is the beginning of the democratic party's descent into division and chaos are simply seeing what they would like to see. No party is helped when members move in lock-step with the party, but have a constituency which is less partisan, because those politicians will not be re-elected. In this current era of hyper-partisan political bickering, sometimes the best way to accomplish your agenda is to allow and encourage more inter-party dissent. It reminds people that the parties are not necessarily two monolithic forces constantly fighting over the same things, even though it frequently seems that way.
recommend
Facebook
Twitter
bookmark 
print
Comments: 1
However, I do not believe that it is good for the country nor a political party nor the elected representative him/her self, when a representative arbitrarily decides not to support the party's elected POTUS at the party's National Convention.
Such hypocritical individualism on the part of any representative, demonstrates that he/she is not a person who is loyal and can be trusted to support the party, even though the party supported the representative in his/her bid to elected office. When provided with such needed campaign support by a political party, representatives are expected to put aside their personal viewpoints and be a loyal party member when it envolves who will represent the party in the general election. As such, supporting the party's choice for POTUS is a part of that party member's expected loyalty.
To openly fail to show support for the party's choice for POTUS, is not only disloyal, it is acting in a dishonest and unethical manner. But even more-so, to publically anounce and/or to allow such disloyalty to become public knowledge, (as these representatives have done) is an egregious act of self preservation and political wellbeing at the expsense of the party which he/she is a member thereof. A party which had stood in support of the representative in his/her previous election campaign. Such disloyalty, demonstrates a serious lack of ethical standards by which the representative conducts him/her self in life, as well as the lack of moral values in the persona of the representative. Both, being essential character traits which definds a person's honorable place within our society. Traits of one's persona which are individually ingrained principles expected of a member of Congress and a representative of the people.
Having a Congressional Representative, for whom I had previously voted, to commit such a defiantly egregious act of disloyalty, I would make it my agenda to personally voice my displeasure to the representative, both in person as well as at the polls in the next election.