Phaedrus has depicted the Democratic Party's increasing tendency to demonize any
opposition with such phrases as "This is the most important election ever," "We must
do everything we can to win," and "Anyone not voting for our candidates is supporting
evil." I have pointed out the Democrats increasing tendency to treat each successive
election as the crucial election that determines whether the country goes fascist or
not. "Wait a minute, isn't that what they said in the LAST election?)
I have also pointed to this increasingly frenzied political hysteria among
partisans of the always lesser evil party as the most plausible explanation for
Phyllis Kahn"s stealing campaign literature. She has served honorably and ethically
in the State Legislature for twenty-seven years so cutting ethical corners is not
typical behavior for her. She is still too young to make incipient Alzheimer's
Disease a likely explanation, especially since recent research has demonstrated that
her athletically active lifestyle is effective in staving off Alzheimer's Disease. I
have proposed that the most plausible explanation for her behavior is due to this
increasing tendency to demonize the opposition; that she must have thought "if this
minor ethical violation of removing the Republican's campaign literature before it has
a chance of influencing the voters can help prevent all the damage to civil liberties,
minority rights, the wellbeing of the poor, etc, etc, that continued Repub
lican control of the Legislature will lead to, then stealing the literature is
justified."
In fact, Democrats have posted comments making precisely that point in this
dicussion; that if they have to choose between overlooking Kahn's "minor" ethical
violation and promoting all the harm that the Republicans will do, then they have no
alternative but to overlook Kahn's "little ethical lapse." One person compared her
her action to driving 33 miles per hour in a zone with a posted speed limit of 30
miles per hour.
Certainly Kahn' actions were in no way as serious a moral and legal violation as
accepting a bribe, as shown by the fact that the law treated it as only deserving a
$200.00 fine instead of a prison term. But there is a sense in which Kahn's actions
strike at the very concept of what a free and fair election requires. A free and fair
election requires that neither the state, nor rival candidates, nor anyone else,
CENSOR, the views of any of the candidates by preventing the voters from hearing or
reading ANY of these views.
And analogy is found in the ethical requirements imposed on scientists. In
science, as opposed to previous fields of human intellectual inquiry, the researcher
must carry out careful experiments and REPORT the results of those experiments so that
other scientists may REPEAT the experiments, thereby CHECKING the results that were
originally reported. In science, falsifying the results of an experiment is
considered so serious a moral violation, in that it strikes at the very requirements
for carrying out scientific research, THAT THE GUILTY REASEARCHER IS NEVER ALLOWED ANY
EMPLOYMENT IN SCIENCE AGAIN! And this penalty is imposed even though the requirement
in science that other researchers verify the originally reported results serves as a
built in check against fraud. That is because if scientific researchers typically
reported fraudulent results, the process of checking to eliminate frauds and other
inaccuracies would be unable to eliminate the frauds fast enough to
allow an increasingly larger body of verified results to build up.
So how are voters in District 59B to resolve this dilemma? In one sense, Kahn's
ethical lapse is minor and in no way as serious as accepting a bribe and the harm in
medical care for the poor, minority rights and civil liberties outweighs the harm of
overlooking Kahn;s lapse in the voting booth. But on the other hand, Kahn's actions
strike at the basic requirements for a free and fair election. Fortunately, voters in
59B have a resolution for this dilemma readily at hand in Green Party candidate Becki
Smith. With her stances in favor of single payer health care, same sex marriage,
workers rights and election reform, we have a candidate who supports all the
progressive causes of Kahn plus more. And since the increasing tendency of Democrats
to demonize their opponents seems to have warped Kahn's judgement, perhaps it is time
for her to retire from the political battle. There is little chance of a greater evil
Republican winning office in 59B.
In Becki Smith, voters in 59B have all the advantages of supporting a genuinely
progressive candidate and none of the risks of electing a greater evil Republican.
Becki Smith is the obvious and only answer to 59B voters dilemna.
Robert Halfhill Loring Park
http://halfhillviews.greatnow.com
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