Thanks to creativity, hubris and the ability to utterly disregard whatever vestiges of a conscience he may have possessed, Lee Atwater carved out a wildly successful career as a political strategist. As George H. W. Bush’s campaign manager during the 1988 presidential election, he organized the spreading of rumors about Michael Dukakis’ imaginary mental illness, and concocted an equally fictitious tale about the candidate’s wife burning an American flag during the Vietnam era.
Atwater subsequently (and more famously) connected the Democratic nominee to Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who went on a crime spree while on a weekend furlough from a Massachusetts prison during Dukakis’ term as governor there.
“I’ll make Willie Horton his (Dukakis’) running mate,” Atwater chortled at the time. After Bush won the election in a landslide, the disgusted Republican National Committee was so aghast at his campaign manager’s morally repugnant behavior that they named him its chairman.
Not long after Atwater’s untimely death, an ethically unfettered college dropout from Texas named Karl Rove oozed onto the national scene. He approved push polls asking South Carolinians if they’d vote for John McCain in their state’s Republican primary if they knew he’d fathered an illegitimate black child (though Rove knew he hadn’t). Later he okayed the equally spurious “Swift Boat” ads, which ultimately helped sink John Kerry in the general election. These and similar stunts convinced Americans not once, but twice, that an inarticulate, failed businessman and child of privilege was a better choice for leader of the free world than several alternative candidates with far more impressive records of accomplishment and leadership.
But of all the disservices this disingenuous duo did to America, the worst was making the art of mass deception look so easy. The reality is that fooling large groups of Americans, even apathetic, ignorant and lazy ones, isn’t as simple as Atwater and Rove made it appear. They’ve had many imitators, but few equals.
A clumsy attempt to stir up divisiveness through nonsensical appeals to prejudice, fear and suspicion occurred locally earlier this month, when Maine’s Republican Party blanketed the state with a mailing just before Election Day that tried to connect those urging a “No” vote on Question 1 with gay marriage advocates. The state GOP understandably opposed Question 1, a “People’s Veto” effort to repeal a law passed earlier in the year by the Republican-controlled legislature, which if enacted, would have banned Election Day voter registration. And credit them with solid planning; since both the local and national Republican agendas are designed to tilt the playing field even further toward a privileged few at the expense of most of the rest of us, voter suppression seems like a logical thing to implement. Unfortunately, when it began looking as though the bogus “protect against voter fraud” argument the GOP hoped would defeat the People’s Veto wasn’t swaying the electorate, someone at party headquarters decided it was time to play the “appeal to the lowest common denominator” card.
A mailing featuring a blonde, Caucasian woman with a decidedly skeptical look on her face was sent to thousands of homes around the state. (Full disclosure: One came to my residence, though none of the three voters living here is a registered Republican.) The text of the card read, in large block letters, “Mainers have the right to know their votes are secure. So why is the gay marriage alliance trying to take that right away?” Similar hogwash followed; it concluded with, “Why would anyone want to make Maine’s elections less secure? Vote NO on Question 1.”
Here’s a better question: Since when did the “gay marriage alliance” (assuming such an entity actually exists) have anything to do with Election Day voter registration?
Maine voters saw through the partisan Republican attempt to eliminate same-day voter registration and reinstated it; 60 percent of those casting ballots last Tuesday voted “Yes” on Question 1.
The Maine GOP’s early-November gay-bashing attempts turned out to be a miscalculation. But don’t expect the soulless, win-at-all-costs individuals who plan national or local Republican electoral strategy to alter their tactics; they’ll just change their target(s). Deriding gays, unions, scientists, immigrants and/or environmentalists isn’t working right now, nor is demonizing imaginary socialists. And since the rub-out of Osama bin Laden, it’s been tough making those tired old “soft on terrorism” claims stick to Democrats. But Republicans will eventually find an exploitable boogeyman that resonates with their base; they always do. And when that happens, look out. Once the “Fair and Balanced” Fox News infotainers and the blowhards on right-wing talk radio have the game plan, it’s likely next year’s elections, and particularly the presidential campaign, will have Democrats pining for the good old days of dealing with foes who were more principled, decent, scrupulous and honorable.
Like Lee Atwater and Karl Rove.
— An English teacher in York County, Andy Young appreciates the irony involved with writing an essay on divisiveness that some readers will undoubtedly find divisive.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
