Kill the Consultants
Recently, on the same day, I received five over-size, glossy political postcards from Gov. Bruce Rauner. The cards told the most outrageous, bald-faced lies about an opponent that I have ever read. As I digested the messages, I became sick to my stomach.
Rauner is being challenged by state Rep. Jeanne Ives for the GOP nomination for governor, at the March 20 Republican primary election.
I do not favor either candidate. Ives is too conservative for me, while Rauner is, well, a baldfaced liar. And apparently not embarrassed or shamed a whit about his lying to the voters.
The messages say that Ives, among other dastardly deeds:
• Is the lackey of Democratic Speaker of the Illinois House Mike Madigan;
• Wants to keep the recent increase in the income tax, and
• Opposes cutting property taxes.
Thee anti-Ives statements are “supported” by citations of roll call votes and quotations found in newspapers.
Shamefully, the above claims by Rauner represent lying by the ploy of excerpting snippets from larger statements to reverse the meaning.
For example, in Henry IV, Shakespeare has Dick the Butcher declare: ''The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.” Sounds like an attack on lawyers.
Yet in the full context, Butcher thought if he disturbed law and order, he could become king.
Thus, Shakespeare meant the famous line as a compliment to attorneys and judges who instill justice in society.
That is what Rauner and his consultants have done. Reverse the meaning. Red becomes green; night, day.
Indeed, Ives is as anti-Madigan, anti-tax (of any kind) as they come.
Respected publications such as Crain’s Chicago Business, columnist Scott Reeder, and others have already called out Rauner for his lying.
We must also note that Democrat Mike Madigan, Rauner’s nemesis, has been using misleading attack ads against GOP opponents for years.
I still stifle a rueful chuckle when I recall an ad in which Madigan minions charged a GOP opponent for consorting with sex perverts. This was so because the Republican rented an apartment to someone who had years earlier been convicted of some sex crime.
[Political campaigning has been rough and tumble since the early days of the Republic, when Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Act. The law allowed President John Adams to jail to newspaper editors and others who criticized him, which he did with gusto.]
Today, billionaires flaunt limitless campaign spending as they assault untutored voters with lies and misleading half-truths that are laughable to insiders.
Why do they do this? Because it works!
In my day, half a century ago, candidates generally stuck to making positive statements about themselves, leaving their opponents alone.
Not today, obviously. I blame the political consultants. They are paid to win, period. Not to win fairly, honestly, nor with substantive arguments. But simply to win.
Win at any cost consultants disgust me. They lurk in the background of campaigns, holding in contempt the voters they deceive.
Consultants have found that voters—their cynicism probably ingrained by endless attack ads courtesy of those same consultants—tend to believe the worst about candidates today.
Of course, candidates don’t have to accept the advice from consultants that they mislead the public about their opponents. Yet, too many candidates want to win so badly they accept the “wisdom” of their consultants, and thus often spend most of their money on the attack.
Legitimate criticism of an opponent is fair game, of course, and helpful to voters. But outright lying? Come on. If we—you and I—don’t call out bald-faced lying, things will only get worse, if such is possible.
At the national level, PolitiFact uses volunteers and donations to call out misrepresentation and lies.
I propose at the state and local level in Illinois we create a simple Code of Ethics for Political Campaigns: “I will neither lie nor mislead voters about my opponents.” Then we ask all candidates to sign the pledge.
Those who fail to sign the pledge, or break it, would be publicly rebuked. Those who sign and keep to the pledge would be publicly commended.
The ideal group to implement a Code of Ethics would be the non-profit Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. But they would need lots of volunteer help.
Pollyannaish? Sure, but we could use some Jimmy Stewart (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) politics in our democracy.
So, to be charitable, let’s not kill all the political consultants, appealing as the thought might be. Instead, let’s call out those consultants and candidates who lie and mislead.
