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Please Just Tell The Truth

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

Twisting and spinning the truth seems to be in fashion these days, but it really is getting out of hand now that we are close to election time.  Politicians smear each other and sling mud, using lies and half-truths in order to get elected.  Unfortunately, in the process, they are destroying their credibility and their ability to serve the best interests of the country.  How can we have an honest debate about how to solve problems, and how can candidates get a mandate to govern on this basis?  How can we get good people to run for office, when they risk being unfairly smeared and dragged through the mud? 

In my opinion, a good indicator of whether a politician wants what is best for the country or whether he just wants power for himself is to see whether he tells the truth in his campaign or whether he spins and smears.

For example, I have been very disappointed in the way my own congresswoman, Ann Northup, has been spinning and smearing.  In a recent ad, she tries to frighten people about her opponent, John Yarmuth, by saying that he wants to end Social Security.  I went to the web site she set up that has the real Yarmuth quotes and found that Yarmuth’s Social Security proposal was essentially the Republican plan, which was to keep Social Security for those who are already retired and those who will retire soon, and to allow younger people to invest their half of the Social Security “contribution” into an IRA-type investment that they would own and that could not be spent or eliminated by the government.  This is a good proposal that would help make retirement years more secure for everyone. 

For Northup, who is a Republican, to smear Yarmuth for agreeing with her own party’s plan on Social Security, attempting to frighten people by suggesting that he wants to end their Social Security payments, can only be considered dirty politics.  It is also very counterproductive, as it attacks and smears Yarmuth for one of the few good ideas he actually had and makes it even less likely for politicians to be willing to support such a proposal.  It is a real pity.  Voters are left with the following choices: they can vote for Republican Northup, who is willing to shade the truth, vote for Democrat Yarmuth, who typically supports big government, socialist policies or vote for Donna Mancini, the Libertarian candidate. 

One of the most recent victims of smear politics is George Allen, a Senator from Virginia, who is running for re-election.  Allen seems to be a very decent fellow, with sensible policy proposals.  However, his opponent does not want to talk about the policies.  Instead, he is trying to make people believe that Allen is a bigot, claiming, without proof, that Allen expressed bigoted views and behaviors back in his college days.  It seems the elitists in the media think any white person who lives anywhere near the South probably is a bigot, and they regularly buy into this kind of attack on anyone whose positions they don’t like, even when there is no proof and when the claim contradicts all the evidence.   They ought to be ashamed of themselves.

While I am all for healthy debate, and I certainly want to know about the candidates’ views and relevant personal histories, I have had it with the half-truths and smears.  If the candidate is a rapist, murderer, or thief, I do think it is relevant to the election and would affect my vote.  However, if the candidate is 40+ years old, I do not want to hear what dirty word he may have used back in his high school or college days more than twenty years ago.  Can we possibly have a statute of limitations on these kinds of smears?  I want to know the candidate’s record in elected or appointed office, his proposals for future policies, and what kind of person he is.  Can he be trusted to do what he says?  Does he treat other people with respect, especially the voters, or does he think people are too stupid to run their own lives and spend their own money?  That is the information we ought to be looking for – not the kind of garbage we have been getting.

In some cases, I wonder how politicians can make their arguments with a straight face.  For example, now there is a proposal to require people to show a photo identification in order to vote.  The purpose of this proposal is  to greatly reduce the opportunity for fraud in elections.  Almost everyone already has such an ID in the form of a driver’s license or passport, but, for those who need one and cannot afford it, the government would provide it free.  Nevertheless, opponents of the proposal say it would create an undue burden, and, in order to try to smear everyone who supports the proposal as being a bigot, they call it a type of poll tax.  Real translation: “I want to be able to commit fraud in elections, and I don’t want any procedure that would make it more difficult to get illegal aliens, dead people, and phantom people to vote for me!” 

If the politicians don’t hurry up and clean up their acts, the people will soon be so disgusted that the entire government will lose its veneer of legitimacy, people will have no respect at all for it, and we will end up either with tyranny or anarchy.  Not a pleasant prospect.

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