May 28, 2007
It’s amazing the tactics unhappy people will turn to when they are losing an argument being conducted on the facts. Time has proved to me, over and over, as I get older that when folks lose a debate on the basis of reason and common sense, they almost always “get personal” in an attempt to destroy the credibility of “the messenger.”
In my case, the Patrick McHenry crowd knows its man is in trouble, so they overreach and call people names.
With an indictment for voter fraud hanging over one of McHenry’s young associates, the congressman’s defenders ought to be looking for a reasonable explanation as to why this alleged felony occurred in July and again in August 2004—in McHenry’s own house in Cherryville, right under the would-be congressman’s nose.
Instead of asking, “How could this have happened?” and then coming up with a plausible answer, the “McDefenders” point the bony finger of indignation at me and my political compatriot Donnie Young. Somehow, in their twisted way of thinking, we are the problem. We must be disloyal, we must be “sour grapes” over David Huffman’s defeat in 2004, we must be “guilty of political grandstanding,” and we must be “working with the Democrats.”
It honestly never occurs to them that McHenry is the real problem, and it’s not a secret any more to a lot of western North Carolina Republicans. It never makes any sense for them to ask each other, “How is it that McHenry didn’t know about this alleged crime the very day it happened?” After all, it was from his home that the illegal vote was cast!
But the McHenry apologists don’t care about reasonable assumptions. They revert to what they themselves used to call “the politics of personal destruction” when Bill Clinton was president. They see Donnie Young and me—and hundreds of other Republicans who remain behind the scenes—as “traitors” trying to take down their young prince.
I was amused this past week when I intercepted an email (thanks to a friend) from one man, an elected official in Caldwell County, to another elected official in Caldwell County, derogatorily calling Donnie “Dennis Benefield’s brother.” He didn’t even have the decency to spell my name right, but then, decency isn’t what these people are really about.
My answer to him was about respect, which I don’t believe he has for me, even though he denied that in another email. I also told him that I’ve known Donnie Young for a long time, although not that well, and lots of Republicans in western North Carolina have seen this chairman of the N.C. Christian Coalition do a lot of good over the years.
Still, I wrote my tormentor, Donnie will do and say some things that I wouldn’t. Likewise, I’m sure my style disagrees with Donnie from time to time. So we’re both guilty by association, you see. It doesn’t matter that they can say we’re guilty of what!
Another lady in Caldwell County, whom I’ve never had the displeasure of meeting, sent me an email labeling me “a bigot.” Wow, where did that come from, and based on what evidence? And, I asked her to explain, how might I be a bigot for my intense dislike for a White-Anglo-Saxon-Catholic congressman named McHenry?
It doesn’t matter to her, I’m sure, that I’ve had a 36-year career in the public arena where bigotry would hardly be tolerated—including more than 10 years as a community college instructor, where I’ve taught hundreds of students from dozens of foreign countries.
For the record, I don’t give a big fat rat’s behind what color anybody’s skin is, where his or her parents came from, or even his or her sexual orientation. What I do care about is that my congressman be elected with the votes of legal voters, that people work hard and pay their taxes, that they defend this great country from those who want to destroy us and that they display some honesty and integrity.
These apologists also fail to address McHenry’s record of 2½ years of voting for positions that are not widely held within the 10th District but that do favor his campaign contributors—big oil, big banks, the pharmaceutical industry, beer distributors. They don’t even seem to wonder why the conservative Disabled American Veterans and the liberal National Education Association can both rate McHenry a zero for effectiveness.
Again, this is a great lesson for our children and grandchildren, isn’t it? Regardless how wrong we are in terms of facts, reason, logic and common sense, let’s be sure to try to win the debate by calling the other people names! Nyah, na, nyah, na, nyah, na!
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