By Louis Avallone
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There is something special about the written word. After all, Moses came back down from Mount Sinai with the commandments WRITTEN down on two tablets of stone. Before that, of course, there were cave paintings and hieroglyphics etched on pyramid walls. All through human history, the written word has just always had a sense of permanent importance. Maybe it is because, for many hundreds of thousands of years, man hunted and had to read and interpret animal track imprints, over virtually any terrain, if he were to survive.
And if your home was like mine the week before last month’s election, you had lots of opportunities to sit at your kitchen table and “interpret” numerous political “imprints” that were in being made in the form of campaign mailers (or postcards). These were those mail pieces that promoted (or purportedly exposed) this candidate, or that candidate, and were sent to you from that political party, or this political action committee, or directly from the candidates themselves.
Some claims seemed silly. Some seemed to be sheer desperation. Some seemed just mean…and those are the ones that got me all stirred up. Here’s an example of why:
You have heard the saying that, “All is fair in love and war,” right? Some might say that the same might apply to politics, but I say absolutely not. The origin of that saying, “All is fair in love and war” is the notion that there are no rules; that when you are in love or waging war, you are allowed to be deceitful in order to get what you want. But this is not right, and it is wholly unacceptable for candidates seeking elected office because they are seeking the very trust of the electorate to represent their concerns with consistent integrity, and honor.
So when I received a postcard in the mail from Barrow Peacock’s opponent in the race for Senate District 37, I was disappointed. She mailed out a postcard to voters in the district, which stated that Barrow was “open minded” on abortion. Her source was Barrow’s candidate interview with the Shreveport Times. If you do the research, you’ll find that not only did Barrow NEVER state that he was “open minded” on abortion, but Barrow’s countless television commercials, for weeks, have plainly stated that he is PRO-life.
Even though Barrow’s opponent in that race, and her campaign team, must have viewed these same television commercials wherein Barrow stated that he was PRO-life, they still chose to create, design, print, and mail a postcard to the electorate, stating as fact, what they knew to be untrue about Barrow.
If we have learned anything from recent history, we know that often how a candidate conducts themselves in their campaign for office is an indicator of how they will conduct themselves when they are IN office. This is why genuine change in our local, state, and federal government begins with the consideration of the character of the candidates, instead of their initial popularity.
But this point seems no longer to be wishful thinking for our democracy. In fact, this point of a candidate’s character (or qualifications) “trumping” their initial popularity is well illustrated from Obama’s approval index (as reported by Rasmussen Reports). For example, in January 2009, 65% of the American voters approved of Obama, as his initial popularity was riding high. Today, almost the inverse is true: 55% disapprove of him as President, and his popularity is relegated now to riding on the backs of the 16% of likely American voters who say the country is heading in the right direction. Note to self: Being the popular choice isn’t always the best choice.
Of course, misleading the electorate is not limited to campaign “push cards” or mail pieces, and sometimes it doesn’t matter what political party you belong to either.
Even the Shreveport Times reported on the Sunday before the election, in error, that one of Craig Smith’s campaign talking points was false, regarding the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Department budget doubling to $31 million over the past 10 years, while total arrests have largely remained the same. I do support our Sheriff, and if you do the research, you will find that the Sheriff’s budget has, in fact, doubled in the past 10 years, according to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office. Even the Sheriff’s own data reflects total arrests have remained the same over the past 10 years. Maybe there is good reason for that, but again, let the candidates explain their positions, free from false suggestions, made deliberately, or negligently, by either the candidates or reporters themselves.
I understand, of course, that running for political office is not for the faint of heart or thin-skinned. But the electorate should know the facts about how all candidates for public office are expected to vote on the issues. That’s tough enough to analyze on a good day. But when a candidate or reporter begins introducing deception and distraction, intentional or otherwise, that’s just not right, no matter what people say about the whole “all’s fair in love and war” malarkey.