Reply #71: People Are Trapped By Their Brand, Sir

[The Magistrate]

A preacher sermonizing about family values gets no slack if found in bed with a parishioner's wife; the lead singer of a rock band found in bed with a roadie's wife gets a shrug and a 'what did you expect?'

A man running as the avatar of leftism and the 'One True Democrat' in the race cannot state a willingness to join a hard right reactionary Republican on a ticket or in his administration without finding himself in the predicament of the lecherous 'family values' preacher; the dissonance between the cultivated pretense and the exposed action is too great.

A person running as a pragmatic, do what it takes to win and get things done in office type, and actually in striking distance of victory, does not create such dissonance by engaging in calculated statements and actions that anyone can see may siphon off voters normally committed to the opposition, and weaken the resolve of opponents across the aisle. That is exactly what people expect of them, and as is generally the case when people appear to run true to form, they will praised for such things.

"Sincerity in social relations is absolutely fatal, it is like putting a steel girder into a house of cards."