After four months of legal research, our legal team reported to me that we have some great cases against special interests and candidates ofboth political parties.Then they asked, do you have a couple of years and an extra million to defend yourselves in the courts?
In one case, a wealthy interest called the Club for Growth fabricated facts about a Congressional candidate in an attack ad and put our name and the false facts in a picture of our web site to give it credibility.Without accepting big money from special interests, not able to defend I was furious. I decided to complain to Steven Moore at the Wall Street Journal.Twenty minutes into the conversation and my complaint Moore informs me that he was one of the founders of Club for Growth. Stunned and speechless the conversation soon ended with him saying he would look into it. Nothing happened.
Work here sensitizes us to the quiet unmentioned war over the minds of our fellow citizens, that in this democracy, casting political power out to the mob has but one delicate and vulnerable means of success:the mob’s ability to acquire accurate, trusted information by which they have some hope of being good for us.
In an age where information and emotions can be so easily tortured — and so many selfish interests are willing to do so — the citizens’ right to the facts is the paramount issue of our time.
JOHN MCCAIN IS REMOVED FROM OUR BOARD is raising a few feathers. To explain:
Yes, John McCain was voted off Project Vote Smart’s board for failing to provide information in our National Political Courage Test. Yes, John McCain did sign a letter going out to all other Presidential and Congressional candidates in an effort to compel them to take and pass the test.
However, it is important to note the following:
1. Sen. McCain has taken and passed this test in all of his prior campaign elections.
2. Barack Obama took and passed the test when he ran for the Illinois State Legislature but has failed it this year.
3. Hillary Clinton has never passed the test.
4. The Project board also voted to remove Senator Bill Bradley from our board when he failed to pass the test as a candidate for President in 2000.
On a more personal note, some recall that I was the dead political body that Congressman John McCain stepped into the Senate over in 1986 when Barry Goldwater resigned. I want to emphasize that John’s removal from our board is required by our rules and the precedents we have set. In spite of our sometimes bitter contest for Senator Goldwater’s Senate seat 22 years ago, I have liked and admired much of what John has done during his Senate career.
This 10-year study tests each candidate’s willingness to provide citizens with information on the issues that citizens are most concerned with and that the candidate is likely to face if elected. Each candidate is repetitively asked by major media, prominent political leaders and Vote Smart staff to provide this crucial information over a six-week period.
This graph shows the declining willingness of all candidates for Congress to provide this information. The percentage of Democrats and Republicans providing information never varies more than a few percentage points while third party candidates tend to be more willing to do so. The excuse most often exposed by the test is candidate fear of opposition research.
You can view the results for all Presidential, Congressional and state legislative candidates in our database under “Issue positions” or “Political Courage Test.” Many 2008 candidate tests are not yet completed.
Here is a small sampling of the excuses given as collected by our 200 -plus media test participants and Project staff:
* “Our campaign only filled out issue questionnaires if they came with a campaign contribution” - North Carolina Democrat
* “The Republicans suggested that we not respond” - Iowa Republican
* “The leadership told him not to answer the issue questions” - Ohio Republican
* “It is not our job to educate. It is our job to win!” - Democratic National Committeeman
* “My consultant asked me why I would want to provide the Project with issue positions that my opponent would see.” - WA Democrat
* “Americans aren’t asking for more information from candidates, they’re asking for less. They don’t want to be troubled.” - WA Republican Chairman
* “Our consulting firm is telling our candidates not to respond.” - California Republican
* “The party is advising candidates not to answer the issue questions.” - Ohio Democrat
* “The people won’t use issue information unless it comes with a free ginzu knife.” - Presidential Campaign
There is no rarer moment of political clarity than when a citizen ponders what it means to cast power to the mob in the hopes that the mob will be good to them.
To believe that such a thing could work in today’s world of powerful self-governing factions is a leap into the darkness that only the most shrewd and selfless can make.
It is the very jump that Jefferson, Madison, Adams and Washington took not so long ago.
Project Vote Smart is made possible by the few who carry on that legacy and are willing to put aside their personal politics for that most essential component in the struggle: the people’s right to the facts about those who govern or those who wish to replace them.
Please help when you can. But remember even when you cannot, use us to defend yourself and every other American upon whom we are so dependent for their good judgment.
The Project conducted a ten-year study of every candidate for state legislature, governor, congress and the presidency to track their decreasing willingness to provide citizens with specific positions on the voter’s concerns. Or in other words: Issues that their pollster did not stamp SAFE!
Using key leaders of both parties from the Project’s Board and over 100 major daily newspapers we bombarded each candidate with requests for information on issues. The percentage of candidates willing to provide information dropped from a high of 72% in 1996 to a low of 48% in 2006.
You can watch your favorite candidates performance on this years test on this web site. Just look at the Political Courage Test. Three things became apparent over the course of the test:
The percentage of democrats and republicans agreeing to answer questions never varied more than a few percentage points.
The more money a candidate raised, the more ability they had to control their campaign message the less likely they were to provide citizens with issue position specifics.
The basic reason a candidate would refuse to provide such information was to avoid opposition research.
Here is tiny sample of the reasons they will not provide this basic information every citizen has a right to:
“Our campaign only filled out issue questionnaires if they came with a campaign donation.” - NC Democrat
“My consultant asked me why I would want to provide the Project with issues positions that my opponent would see.” - WA Democrat
“Americans aren’t asking for more information from candidates, they’re asking for less. They don’t want to be troubled.” WA Republican Chairman
“It is not our job to educate. It is our job to win!” - AZ Democratic National Committee
Your candidates are placating everyone with a spoonful of sugar and there is no one in the fields to cultivate.
American revolutions: “Bondage may bring them the courage of revolution and if the revolution is successful that will bring them liberty. With liberty will bring them great abundance but that will bring greed and selfishness and that will lead to apathy and complacency. Once that happens they will find themselves dependent again and will eventually lead right back to bondage. In the end they will simply form ‘factions’ (the founders terms for political parties and special interests) and they will simply fight over the awards they can vote for themselves out of the public treasury.”
How many of today’s candidates will deceive to preserve one vote when telling the truth might win them two. People are brighter than this!
None of the Founders were sure that casting out power to the mob was a good idea. They all worried that “factions” would form and destroy the people’s ability to self-govern.
A nation that expects to be ignorant and free expects what never was and never will be.- Jefferson
A popular government without popular information is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both.- Madison
Liberty can not be preserved without general knowledge amongst the people who have a right and desire to know. - Adams
The rub they feared was that we would all organize into special interests and fight over the rewards; that we could vote ourselves out of the public treasury. That was nine generations ago, they are all dead now.
This is our time and our watch; look at what we have done:
Economists = 9 trillion deficits?
Climatologists = global warming?
Sociologists = brain drain?
Biologists = extinctions have increased 1000%
Geologists = the end of oil
Religious fanaticism = I speak for God, believe or die
To the extent that any one of these groups of experts are right, our lives are about to change. In the political society the Founders began, we have now bet everything we have that our local congressperson is going to handle it for us. Only it is difficult for our local officials to handle it when their next campaign contribution is likely to depend upon them not prioritizing these things. Great movements take great education and there is no education like pain, physical or fiscal. It would appear that the mob is about to be educated.
A good friend and our biggest supporter died of an aneurysm while I was on a plane to meet with her.
It is true, we had to kick McCain off our board because he signed letters for the Project that compelled his opponents and a few thousand other candidates to answer the Project’s questions and then refused to answer them himself.
Our legal counsel says we cannot afford a protracted lawsuit against the Club For Growth, even though they clearly fabricated information about a candidate, put it in a TV commercial and superimposed our logo and web site design over it to give it credibility.
On the up side I flew into North Carolina the last week to give my speech - Depending on the Wisdom of Strangers. They treated me to a round of golf on Pinehurst II. If you are a golfer, you know that is pretty cool.
Speaking of the speech, a lot of people have asked me to give it in their town or want a film of it. I have attached a grainy performance of it when I was in Wisconsin. It takes about 10 minutes to download - SORRY. I am a little windy, I use to be a politician you know. But people seem to really like it anyway.
