IN THE DEFENSE OF DECENCY


The readers of Ezra’s essays are now showing the wears and tears of age. Some of them have actually become long in the tooth. The question that I have to ask today is whether any of you believe that in the United States there will be a presidential election that is conducted without an assault on decency. I doubt that my grandchildren will see such an election but the hope here is that their grandchildren may experience a presidential election that is consistent with the basis concepts of decency.
A short look at the elections that have taken place in the past 80 years might be instructive. In those years, attacks on decency were commonplace. In the past ten or twelve years, assaults on decency were to be found in almost every presidential election.
My first exposure to presidential elections took place at the age of six in the election of 1928. The election involved a colorless engineer from California named Herbert Hoover. He was running against the flamboyant Governor of New York, Al Smith, a Democrat and a Catholic. You may also recall that at that time, America’s southland was known as the “Solid South.” Southerners at that time voted as a block for the Democratic candidate. But Al Smith’s religion threw them a curve ball. They wanted to vote for the Democratic candidate but his Catholic faith prevented many of them from doing so. In those years, it was commonplace to hear that if Al Smith were elected, the Pope in the Vatican would actually be in charge of the government of the United States. The assault on decency in this case made it impossible for Al Smith to have won the 1928 election. If Smith had been a Protestant, he would have been perhaps a three to one favorite to prevail over Herbert Hoover. But that was not the case, and the Baptists and the Evangelicals deserted Smith and voted for Hoover or simply stayed home. Herbert Hoover won that election in 1928 and by 1929 the American economy was in a Depression that lasted for 13 years. Even today in New York City, there is an annual dinner honoring Al Smith which has become a major social and political event. Smith is remembered but no one seems to have thought about Herbert Hoover in the 76 years since he left the office of the President of the United States.
Moving forward from the 1928 election, in the year 2000 we had the Republican primary contest between George W. Bush and John McCain. Bush was being advised by Karl Rove, a man who wants to win at whatever cost. Before the election, Bush and Rove committed a major assault on decency by spreading the story that McCain was no longer stable after having spent five and a half years in the captivity of the North Vietnamese. In the New Hampshire primary, McCain clobbered Bush, rolling up an 18% margin.
When the primary moved to South Carolina, the Bush strategists elected to play the race card. Sometime prior to the South Carolina election, McCain and his wife had adopted a small girl from an agency in Bangladesh run by the people who were associated with Mother Teresa. Bangladeshi children are often dark-skinned. When Bangladesh was part of India, they found that their dark skin made them members of the lower castes in Indian society. Nonetheless, the McCains adopted the little girl and John McCain was promptly accused by the Bush machine as having had a black child conceived outside of wedlock. For a white man to have fathered a black child outside of wedlock is a fatal charge in any election. And so it was that McCain lost South Carolina to George W. Bush.
Now if we advance further into the primary season in 2008, we find that the assaults on decency have not stopped. The current rumor is that during his five and a half years of captivity by the North Vietnamese, John McCain sold out on other American prisoners. May I ask that if John McCain had sold out on other American prisoners, why did he continue to be tortured? If I understand correctly, McCain cannot comb his hair because it is too painful to raise his arms above head level from torture by his captors. Accusing McCain of selling out is another scurrilous rumor that comes within the province of bottom feeders.
As a matter of disclosing my interest, I am an adoptive father and I know a little bit about military service abroad. While I am sympathetic to McCain on these grounds, it should also be noted that I am not a McCain supporter nor have I ever contributed a dime to his campaign chest.
McCain must have angered some people in the Republican Party because the assaults on decency still go on. In my view, McCain is a decent person who does not deserve these assaults.
In the 2004 election between George Bush and John Kerry, you may recall the so-called “Swift Boat” attacks. John Kerry was an authentic war hero in the Vietnamese War. During that period of war, George Bush spent part of this time with the Texas Air National Guard. It might be observed that there were no Vietnamese to fight the Texans in the Texas Air National Guard. When the election became close, a group of individuals formed the Swift Boat committee and attacked John Kerry on his military record. Curiously, the attacks were leveled at Kerry being awarded two Purple Hearts. Nothing was said about the Silver Star that was awarded to Kerry, which is the third highest medal in the American military. Purple Hearts are not awarded for any acts of heroism; they have to do with being wounded. It is entirely conceivable that a soldier or sailor performing paper work as a clerk well behind the front lines might be hit by a stray bullet, which will put him in line for a Purple Heart if the wound occurred in a combat zone. But the damage was done and John Kerry lost the election. May I observe that Silver Stars are not awarded by sending in box tops from your favorite cereal.
Now we advance to the primary elections in 2008. For the bottom feeders who thrive on lies and scandal, the hunting is very rich. Before life is done, the bottom feeders may spew their venom on Mitt Romney because of his faith in the Mormon Church. I expect him to be accused of polygamy.
Mike Huckabee has the cockamamie idea that the United States Constitution should be realigned on Biblical principles. Biblical principles include the issues of slavery. Coming from a Southern state in the old Confederacy, it would be logical to ask if Huckabee wishes to reinstate slavery protected by the American Constitution.
Had Rudolph Giuliani been nominated as the Republican candidate for President, I suspect the rumors and jokes about his three marriages may never have stopped. If his marriages are not enough, there is always his former business partner Bernie Kerik, who will shortly answer a Federal indictment that could put him away for several years.
On the Democratic side, we have Senator Hillary Clinton who is known for her sharp elbows. When the bottom feeders come to the surface to spray their venom, it might be expected that they will accuse
Mrs. Clinton of being a lesbian. Such a story, it turns out, is already in circulation.
Then we have Barack Obama who on his father’s side is an African American. The bottom feeders have long since started the rumor that Obama is really a Moslem. When Brian Williams of NBC News asked him about these rumors, Obama said that he was a Christian and had always been one. One more rumor is that Obama took the oath of office using the Koran in place of the Bible. Obama found this laughable, as I do too. There is a congressman from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, who is a Moslem, who took the oath of office using the Koran. But he has nothing to do with Barack Obama.
As a matter of fact, I put no faith whatsoever in people placing their left hand on the Bible or the Koran or any other religious document and swearing to tell the truth. Every liar from Ken Lay of Enron fame to Scooter Libby has placed his hand on a Bible and pledged to tell the truth. The juries have convicted them of perjury nonetheless.
Again, as a matter of full disclosure, I have contributed nothing to the campaigns of Mrs. Clinton or of Barack Obama.
And so we see that after 80 years, within my lifetime, the assaults on decency still exist and are probably becoming more vicious than ever. They make the old question of “When did you quit beating your wife?” look fairly simple in comparison. And so I repeat the question that launched this little essay, are we ever going to have a presidential election that is devoid of assaults on decency? Certainly not in my lifetime, but perhaps when my great, great grandchildren are of voting age, they may experience such a phenomenon. And perhaps they will have the opportunity to vote for a gay atheist who has Jewish roots.
There may be an oxymoron in that conclusion, but perhaps it is oxymoronic for us to expect that someday we will have an election that is devoid of attacks on decency.
E. E. CARR
January 24, 2008
Essay 287
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Kevin’s commentary: I’m partial to “have you heard the joke they don’t tell to gay people” as my ‘gotcha’ question.
More importantly — we’re in an election year of Ezra’s Essays! Looking forward to this one. I actually remember reading several of these in hard copy when my mother would release them from her stash to the rest of the family.
I wonder if this essay was written before the ‘birthers’ were in existence. Those guys are friggen’ terrible.

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