With ‘nastiness’ campaign started, how bad will it get?

From Jim Thoreen,

Glenwood

Back when I was a young, impressionable 20-year-old about to be eligible to vote I would pour over the names on all the ballots and ask some of the elders in town “Who should I vote for?”  They would offer either nothing or would recite the “just go right down the ballot” for their party’s candidates. One of the elders said, “Don’t vote for that guy from Crookston. He said two swear words in his last speech!” My, how quaint were those days.

Within the last two weeks, on the national stage, here are statements from two Republican candidates: Arizona Republican U.S. Representative Paul Gosar; and former President Donald Trump.

Both men offered comments regarding the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. The general had appraised Congress that, in a message to Chinese officials, he assured them that the U.S. was not planning to attack that country in President Trump’s final week in office.

The former president got a little “ticked off.” On his Truth Social site Trump said that the general’s comments “…were so egregious (hmm…who suggested that word…not Trump) that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been death.” I suggest that Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan or Dwight Eisenhower would have reacted, if at all, with quite different words.

Not to be outdone, Rep. Gosar simply said, “In a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung.” Webster defines a quisling as “a traitor who collaborates with an enemy occupying force for personal gain.” But Gosar does the extra mile to smear General Milley, implying that he is perverse and that being hung is appropriate.

So, it’s early in the 2024 campaigning. If this represents the start of “nastiness,” how badly will things deteriorate by election day?

Remember to vote.