On Friday, October 8, 2004, at 08:58 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Phaedrus has depicted the Democratic Party's increasing tendency to demonize any opposition with such phrases as "Anyone not voting for our candidates is supporting evil."
Mr. Halfhill of Loring Park quotes something in the same sentence as the Democratic Party. I'd be interested in seeing where this quote is taken from.
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.
"Strike at the very concept of what a free and fair election requires?" Take a listen to Nina Totenberg's excellent piece this morning on MN public radio concerning use of the Secret Service and local police officials to keep unwanted people out of rallies and appearances. Rallies, maybe, but threatening citizens with jail to keep them out of appearances I think more aptly strikes at the very concept of what a free and fair election requires.
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!
Did John Najarian finally retire?
But on the other hand, Kahn's actions strike at the basic requirements for a free and fair election. 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.
And now it is the "basic requirements" for free and fair elections, followed by more demonizing by Democrats (although not ascribed to the party this time). I just get the willies when these words that came into usage with the rise of fundamentalist participation in elections got coupled with Internet based communication. It is darned easy to say, "spew" and "evil" and "demon" and "vicious" and any number of other terms when attacking another person or in this case, another party. And I say to myself, but I am a Democrat. My parents were Democrats, as were all four of my brothers. None of them and certainly not me uses any of the words listed. The word "demon" has no meaning to our non-Christian family. Neither does "evil." We always identified that word with the religious belief in the dichotomy of good and evil. You may be interested to know that a holistic cosmos can't use dichotomies very well.
So, knowing it is not going to go away, I would just put in a plea to be more civil.
Thanks,
Laura Wittstock Southeast Minneapolis and supporter of Phyllis Kahn
Laura Waterman Wittstock MIGIZI Communications, Inc. 3123 East Lake Street Minneapolis, MN 55406 612.721.6631 ext 219 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.migizi.org http://laurawatermanwittstock.blogspot.com/
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