Politics in this country is not a game for the faint of heart or apparently for the fair of mind. The latest case in point is San Diego County Republican Chairman Tony Krvaric, who recently had his Twitter account suspended. Mr. Krvaric essentially hijacked the names of five local Democrats, including two San Diego City Council members and the Democratic county chairman to prevent them from using their own names as Twitter handles.
When confronted, Mr. Krvaric’s response was, “I’m here to elect Republicans.” Twitter suspended his accounts and Mr. Krvaric promptly created another Twitter account and then criticized the Democrats for being out of touch with social media and not previously claiming their own Twitter handles. “Anyone in politics who doesn’t register their name on Twitter is a total goober,” Krvaric posted. Mr. Krvaric’s story is here.
Let’s be clear, many people setup phony Twitter handles as parody accounts. The problem here is that Mr. Krvaric didn’t setup these five accounts to parody these people. He set up the accounts to deny these people the use of their own name on Twitter. I won’t pretend that Mr. Krvaric is the root of all evil on this planet because of what he did, but I am troubled that he sees nothing wrong in his actions. He is, to me, an example of what is wrong with the political environment in this country. It is no longer about resolving different approaches to problem solving and reaching a solution through compromise. It is now about ensuring that you fail, regardless of the merits of your solution, so that I can succeed, regardless of the merit of my solution. It is an attitude of ‘my way or the highway.’ That is wrong, but I suspect that Mr. Krvaric doesn’t care and that’s the true sadness of this situation.