Election campaigns are under way and the name-calling season is open.  Names, labels and stereotypes can influence our opinions and our elections so it’s important to be aware them.

A capable Republican governor, John Kasich is saddled with the “moderate” label, a curse among many of his party’s conservatives. His offenses include working across party lines in partnership with the Clinton administration to balance a federal budget .  There was plenty of conflict in that process, but everyone involved deserves credit for actually getting the job done.  As Ohio governor, he followed the Republican tax-cutting script but used his line-item veto authority against a bill that would have banned Medicaid expansion.  As a result, Ohio’s low income workers have health insurance, unusual for states with Republican Governors.  Kasich said that “by bringing Ohio money back to Ohio to treat the mentally ill, the drug addicted and the working poor…we’re not only ahead on an arithmetic basis, but we think it’s the right issue in terms of giving people a chance and an ability to be lifted.”  He gracefully accepted same-sex marriage, saying that God had given him unconditional love so he should give unconditional love to others.  His reward?  One of the Republican Party’s most influential writers and organizers (the same man who disinvited Donald Trump from the RedState meeting because of his remarks to Megyn Kelly during the Republican debate) Erick Erickson,  called Kasich a “megalomaniacal asshole” and added that he would “not pee on the GOP, let alone vote for president if God and the Republicans decide to punish us with John Kasich as the presidential nominee”  John Kasich deserves a look, not a label.

Democrat Bernie Sanders has been tagged as a “socialist”.  He says of banks that “Too big to fail means too big to exist.” and that huge financial institutions are  resuming the practices that brought on the recession.  He wants them to separate traditional banking from their speculative activities so that taxpayers won’t be on the hook for deals that go bad; and he wants to split mega-banks into smaller organizations.  It’s what Theodore Roosevelt (a Republican) did a century ago when monopolies and mega-corporations abused their power.  The Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade association representing over 6,000 US banks agrees.  Are those bankers socialists too?

Sanders’ ideas are strikingly similar to the policies of nations with the world’s highest standards of living.  The Economist magazine’s “where to be born index” ranks the USA 17th.  The criteria include measures of economic status, life expectancy, unemployment and political freedom.  The nations ahead of us are free democracies that sometimes receive the “socialist” label.  The list includes Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Canada, and Germany.  Like Kasich, Sanders deserves a listen, not a label.

Both Sanders and Kasich have challenged conventional wisdom and party leaders.  Each envisions an America where work is rewarded with fair compensation and where laws and policies assure access to important opportunities including education, health care, old age security, and assistance in times of need.  Both claim to be committed to resurgence of a prosperous middle class with opportunities for upward mobility.  Although their ideas for achieving those goals are substantially different; the outcomes that they seek are similar.  And they are consistent with what American voters are clamoring for.

If we listen to each other and to individual candidates instead of the  parties and super-pacs who want to divide us, we’re likely to find a way forward together.  A debate about ideas between Sanders and Kasich might be a refreshing change, offering agreement on some subjects and profound differences on others.    If we focus on the outcomes that we want and forget the labels we might even re-discover the ability to cooperate toward shared goals; moving forward on areas of agreement even if no one gets their way on every issue.

Negative labels that are applied to candidates in commercials produced by extremists and  big-money interests are best disregarded because they lock us into opposing every idea that comes from the “other side”.  They respond in kind, and there is no progress on anything.

When we elect leaders, it is their ideas, character, and competence that matter.  We have time before primary elections to  evaluate candidates and their ideas.   We can carefully choose the ones who will lead in a direction that works for our whole nation.  A rising tide lifts all boats, including the one in which you and I both ride.