FAIRNESS IN POLITICS--SURELY YOU JEST.

In the 1973 novel The Princess Bride by William Goldman he has one of the characters say,"Life isn't fair, it is just fairer than death." I would like to paraphrase that quote like this, "Politics isn't fair, it is just fairer than death." 

Politics seems to bring out the best and worst in our national psyche. Candidates go for the jugular not with the intent to kill, but only to maim and cripple an opponent, to make him look ridiculous in the eyes of the electorate, or to discredit any of the accomplishments he or she might have realized. Fairness is not even contemplated when attacking the enemy. "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."


Just ask:

•  Thomas Jefferson who hated Alexander Hamilton, distrusted John Adams and detested Aaron Burr (Oops I guess Burr did kill one of his opponents, but with a bullet; not a knife to the jugular) who tried to steal the Presidency away from Jefferson in the Electoral College vote in 1801, or 
• John Adams who waged a bitter campaign against Thomas Jefferson in 1800 using federal Alien and Sedition laws to try to quiet the criticism of his opponent, or 
• Andrew Jackson who won the popular vote in 1824 but was robbed of the Presidency in 1825 by Henry Clay's corrupt bargain that gave John Quincey Adams the electoral vote; whose wife Rachel was vilified by the press in the subsequent successful 1828 election bid for the White House, which vilification may have contributed to her death, or 
• Abraham Lincoln who was lampooned as a gawky country bumpkin and a dictator, or 
• Theodore Roosevelt who turned against his one time friend and protege, William Howard Taft, and ran against him in 1912 thus splitting the Republican vote and allowing Woodrow Wilson to be elected, or 
• FDR whose enemies labeled him a socialist and a traitor to his social class, or 
• Harry Truman whom all the political pundits of the day in 1948 knew couldn't possibly be elected to a term as President in his own right, or 
• JFK who was too young and too Catholic, or
•  Richard Nixon who was too tricky (I believe that means dishonest), or
•  Jimmy Carter who was too Southern, or 
• George Bush (either one) who were painted as none to bright but rich and conservative, or
• Bill Clinton who was too slick, and now
• Barack Obama and his opponent Mitt Romney. 

Notice I haven't even touched upon any state and local elections. 


 James Madison said in Federalist Paper #10

A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.

Sounds like a pretty good description of the political campaign to me. To listen to the rhetoric of either party in the upcoming Presidential election neither candidate is honest, trustworthy, capable, or worthy to be President.

James Madison again said something profound in Federalist Paper #51

 If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

Those auxiliary precautions we know as the Constitution of the United States and its 27 Amendments.


But let us not be confused in the middle of a bitter partisan political campaign with what is constitutionally correct and what is a violation of constitutionally guaranteed freedom and rights. The guarantees of the Constitution do not always seem to be adhered to during the heat of a political campaign. Remember politics is not fair, so an attack on:

• an opponent's spouse and family, 
• their religion, 
• their bank account, 
• their health,
• their education, 
• their honesty, 
• their lack of a pet, 
• their citizenship, 
• their judgement 
• or anything else that can be brought to bear in an effort to discredit in the public's mind their ability to govern is, though possibly an over zealous use of free speech and perilously close to a violation of the First Amendment rights of an opponent, are fairer than death.

Don't even look for fairness when two people want the same elected position. Don't expect an emphasis on issues over personality in the upcoming Presidential campaign. If the winner of the contest will be the candidate who seems to the electorate to be the lesser of two evils then be prepared to have both sides try make their opponent look like the right hand companion of the Devil.