Swanson -- Where Election Candidate Scandals Come From
Where Election Candidate Scandals Come From
There are a lot of ways in which we could reduce electoral candidate scandals. I want to point to a few that are, I think, the most undervalued.
- The Murder Problem
As a society, we recruit, train, and condition many thousands of people to engage in intense campaigns of mass killing and destruction abroad, and we reward and praise them for it. When they struggle with the shift to a nonviolent, non-hating environment after completion of their so-called “service,” we blame ourselves for not giving them more help in that transition or for not being more understanding. Of course we should give infinitely more help and understanding. But why must we accept the premise that we need people to behave as sadistic fascists for various “tours” of “duty” in the first place?
When we insist that candidates both denounce their past behavior and join us in praising and glorifying even worse behavior as long as it was done abroad — when we compel candidates to both brag about having taken part in a war and simultaneously denounce such criminal enterprises and promise not to create too many more of them — we aren’t offering someone a chance to improve and move on; we’re giving a muddled message of condemnation with a wink — or respect with a tsk tsk.
If we were to end the wars — or even if every last one of us were to oppose the wars — we could be scandalized by both the veteran who reportedly says he’ll rape anyone who breaks into his house and the member of a military who sends a missile into an elementary school. We could treat the past errors of military veterans in the same manner as the past errors of anyone else. If we were to stop thinking it was cool to have automatic weapons lying around your house — no matter who you are or have been — we could better identify the candidates to reject and the candidates worthy of support despite past behavior they have actually left behind.
Having participated in organized mass murder should not be a recommendation for public office. Neither should it become a bar to public office if the candidate has clearly and thoroughly rejected and apologized and moved on, something our society impedes with its relentless thanking for a “service.”
- The Issues Issue
Elections should be at least 90% about platform or what most campaign websites that have any call “issues.” What will the candidate do if elected? Currently I’d say that elections in major media outlets are about 5% about what candidates would do if elected and 95% about candidates’ looks and biographies and personal life and sexual life and embarrassing moments and polling and fundraising and debate performances and celebrity endorsers and demographics and identity and campaign staff and the voting process and campaign advertisements and surprising photographs and candidates’ pets and diets and wardrobes and theme songs and the history of the campaigns thus far. If we were to all constantly and relentlessly urge media outlets to cover platforms, and denounce and mock all the Issues Avoidance, we’d be on territory far less fertile for scandals.
- The Honesty Test
If a candidate suffers a large number of scandals, they may all be falsely fabricated, or they may all involve matters that should have been kept private. But once a candidate lies, including by lying that there will be no more scandals when the predictable basis for scandals exists, then the biggest concern should almost certainly be, not the scandal, but the lack of honesty. In fact, if a candidate is dishonest about anything non-scandalous, that candidate should also be dropped like a hot coal. There’s no point in having a platform or avoiding scandals if you can’t be trusted.
- The Identity Distraction
Breaking symbolic glass ceilings is a good thing, a wonderful thing, an important thing. But it does not outweigh everything else combined. In fact, it comes nowhere close to the significance of everything else combined. So, if you prefer a disastrous corporate sell-out with literally no platform who’s a working-class Latino to a platform beyond your wildest dreams that’s from an old white male, you are part of the problem. Yes, I’m sorry to say that I am looking at you, California. You are helping to destroy elections, your country, and the world if you put identity politics ahead of all other outcomes combined. You are also making scandals more likely. Someone can turn out to be less working class or less Latino or more of some other identity than had been thought. Someone can end up liking the wrong food or entertainment or lover. Scandals are made more likely by voting for the king or queen of prom instead of for a legislative representative. If we all vote for the candidate who will work to dismantle structural racism, we’ll do vastly more good than if we vote for a token, for a pretense, for a distraction from what the oligarchs are purchasing right before our eyes.
- The Bribery Basis
If we want to be able to dump and replace candidates on short notice, elections cannot depend on years of fundraising. If we want candidates to be honest, they cannot be systematically bribed. Unless we make election coverage free, and criminalize bribery through public financing, we’ll be stuck with candidates who don’t talk about issues because their plans would be very unpopular but have been bought and paid for. If we were to slowly phase out bribery, we might pass through a period in which bribes became scandalous. Best would be to abolish bribery all at once. We might then be able to drop a candidate because we would be able to quickly find a better one.
- The Democracy Solution
Representative government is dead. We’re hardly ever represented at all. But it continues to walk the Earth, its rotting head held high. To the extent that we can institute direct democracy, decisions by public vote or by local committees, we will reduce the areas in which government can work or generate any scandals.
- The Sex Trick
A story that involves sex may be a scandal, but also may not be. Sex need not make something a scandal. In fact, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to put up a wall of separation between sex and state. Harassment, abuse, violence, and bigotry must be addressed, sexual or otherwise. But sex and sexual identity, per se, have no place in elections — other than in generating scandals.
- The Figure Head Solution
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to elect some figure heads, or to let the public vote on Oscars, or to create more televised talent shows with public voting. There’s clearly a real demand to vote for something based on demographics, personality, and likeability. We need more opportunities to elect people to something based on whatever factor — serious or silly — we choose. We just shouldn’t be doing that for the job of running the $1.5 trillion war machine and the secondary parts of the U.S. government.
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1 thought on “Where Election Candidate Scandals Come From”
https://davidswanson.org/where-candidate-scandals-come-from/
Consider: Suppose you asked your intended surgeon about his/her qualifications before you were given anesthesia, and he said I am over 35 years and an American citizen. So I am qualified. How confident would you be with the anticipated outcome? Well, isn’t it long overdue to amend the US Constitution to add many more qualifications to EVEN BE ON THE BALLOT to be elected president?