Enough
BY MIKE JONES Associate Editor
Sunday, February 19, 2012
“None of this can happen unless we also lower the temperature in this town. We need
to end the notion that the two parties must be locked in a perpetual campaign of mutual
destruction, that politics is about clinging to rigid ideologies instead of building consensus around commonsense ideas.”
— President Obama, 2012 State of the Union speech
Nice speech. But somewhere between January and February he changed his mind.
I’ve been around politics
long enough to become a realist,
if not a cynic. So, I’m
chalking this column up to
allowing myself some blind
naivete.
Politics is not a nice business.
It never has been. It
only takes a passing reading
of history to understand that
politicians have been slinging
mud at one another since
the founding of the country.
However, the 21st century,
with a big assist from the
U.S. Supreme Court and the
Internet, has brought the art
of nasty campaigning to new
heights — or lows.
Muddy money
In its Citizens United decision
the court released the
hounds onto U.S. politics. The
decision made it possible for
anyone to give any amount of
money to a Super Pac. Those
organizations are, by law, not
allowed to coordinate with
the candidate they are trying
to help (wink, wink). Under
that cloak, the Super Pacs can
say anything they want about
a candidate they oppose and
the funding is limited only by
the depth of their pockets or
the willingness of donors.
The result is what we have
seen in the Republican primaries
and caucuses. The
field has been winnowed to
four — Mitt Romney, Rick
Santorum, Newt Gingrich
and Ron Paul. They and their
Super Pacs have hurled so
much garbage at one another
that Tulsa’s trash board might
have to step in to negotiate.
And these are only the Republican
primaries. Wait until
the general election gets
under way. This will be the
most expensive presidential
race in history. More than $1
billion is likely to be raised
and spent.
Back to the State of the
Union speech. President
Obama didn’t come right out
and say that he would reject
Super Pac help. His statement
of ending “the notion
that the two parties must be
locked in a perpetual campaign
of mutual destruction”
certainly was a strong hint.
His campaign staff surely
audits the Republican campaign
and watches those
mudslinging ads. And they
have seen how successful
they are. They also picked up
some campaign ammunition
left lying on the battlefield.
That brings us to the old
cliches: Fight fire with fire;
Give as well as get; Sauce
for the goose is sauce for the
gander; The best defense is a
good offense. And so on. The
logic goes that if Obama, or
any candidate for that matter,
doesn’t respond in kind,
he is sunk.
There is some precedent.
In Sen. John Kerry’s race
against President George W.
Bush, he was what became
known as “swift boated.” A
political action committee
unaffiliated with the Bush
campaign smeared Kerry,
with dubious facts, and he
did not respond. That wasn’t
the only reason Kerry lost the
race, but it was a factor.
Now, for my transient foray
into naivete. I wish that
Obama, or any candidate,
would take the high road. I
wish that someone, Democrat
or Republican, would
step up and tell the American
public that he or she is not
going to deal in misleading,
disingenuous campaigning. I
wish someone would say that
for the good of America and
American politics, he or she
will only deal with the issues
and ways to solve our problems.
I wish that he or she
would demand that the issues
be debated in a true debate
format, without TV anchors
or audience members posing
and posing questions.
I think America would respond.
I would hope they, too,
would stand up and say they
have had enough of negative,
hurtful and untruthful campaigns.
I think they would get
behind anyone who would
take a stand against such
campaigning.
End of naivete.
Sort it out
Sadly, it probably won’t
happen. For a moment, I
thought that Obama was going
to test my theory. Then,
he caved in.
I hope that without some
champion of clean campaigning,
the voters can sort out
the truth from the fiction. I
hope they will reject meanness
and not fall victim to
slick marketing — from both
sides.
With my naivete neatly
placed back upon a high, dark
shelf, the cynic in me says
that expecting voters to make
their decisions based on facts
and records is foolish, at best.
The Republican primaries
are nothing more than
a warm-up. It’s going to get
very ugly out there come the
fall. Maybe this time we’ll
say enough is enough. Then
again, maybe not.
Mike Jones,918-581-8332
mike.jones@tulsaworld.com
