If you watched the news on Tuesday night or read the newspapers on Wednesday, you probably saw my name and/or my picture. Maybe you thought to yourself, “There goes the Rabbi again, tilting at windmills!”

If you are not aware, my latest cause is negative political campaigning.  Along with 31 other clergy, I am promoting a petition drive calling upon political candidates and parties to put aside all those attack ads and embrace the practice of positive campaigning.  We want those aspiring to office to stop telling us what a monster their opponent is and start telling us what are their positions on the pressing issues of our day and what is their vision for the future of our community and nation.

We have taken up this cause because we, like so many other people across the nation, are simply disgusted and outraged by the flood of negative campaign advertising which bombards us every time we turn on the television and the radio.  According to an article from the Associated Press, the political parties have to date spent $160 million on negative campaign ads as opposed to $17 million on positive ones.  As the author of that article states, “That’s just over $1 of nice for ever $10 of nasty.”¹  We see these tactics as nothing less than a national disgrace and an attack upon the very core of democracy itself.

As voters, it is our desire and our right to be informed voters; informed of where the candidates stand on the issues and not on how much dirt each campaign can dig up - or produce - on the opposing candidate.  As long as our political campaigns continue to focus on demonizing their opposition, they deny us the information we need to make positive choices when we vote.

They claim that the reason that the politicians use these ads is because they work.  Well, according to some studies, one of the reasons why they work is that they can reduce voter turnout.²  Indeed, such studies were confirmed in our own Quad City Times this morning by an article entited “Angry Voters Ask How Do I ‘Deregister’?”.³  That phenomenon alone should tell us how dangerous such ads can be.  For while reducing voter turnout may work for the politicians who want to drive away the undecided voter and the one who will vote for their opponent, it most certainly doesn’t work for democracy.  Our democracy is based upon the principle that every citizen has the right and obligation to participate in the political process.  When we encourage citizens not to vote, we are surrendering control of our society to the very same unethical, power obsessed people who have engineered this plot to actively discourage Americans from going to the polls.

Now you may wonder what it is about this issue which particularly rankles members of the clergy.  In one word, “Ethics.”  In Tuesday’s press conference, when one of the reporters noted that such ads are not illegal, one of my colleagues responded, “They may not be illegal but they are unethical.”  As another of my colleagues stated so beautifully, when asked why we, as clergy, are involved in this effort, she said, “We call on people to be their better selves.”  If we, as clergy, call upon people to be their better selves, these ads call upon people to be their worst selves.  They attack the very moral fabric of our society as they strive to establish an operative principle that the road to victory in America is paved with, if not slander, then at least defamation of character.

Along these lines, one of my other colleagues brought up a very interesting and frightening point.  In our society today, we are very concerned about the issue of bullying in schools; of children abusing other children physically, verbally, and emotionally.  But why should we expect our children to behave differently when they can go home, turn on the television, and watch, and listen, as those individuals who aspire to community and national leadership engage in bullying behavior before the entire nation?  These ads do model behaviors for children; behaviors that parents and educators are working desperately to eliminate.

Nor does it end here.  Right now our country has been embroiled in a scandal concerning the sexual misbehavior of Congressman Mark Foley, as well as the failure of others in Congress, who were aware of Congressman Foley’s misdeeds but who chose to permit them to continue.  Yet why should we expect our political leaders to act with integrity once they are in office when we permit them to act with little integrity while they are seeking office?  By tolerating, and even rewarding, their unethical behavior during their campaigns, we send our elected officials a clear message that they can expect that such tolerance and rewards will continue once they are in power.

For all these reasons and more, we 32 clergy of the Quad Cities have decided to speak out on this issue, and to invite our fellow Quad Citians to speak out on it as well.  It is our hope that large numbers of disgruntled voters will take the time to sign and submit our petitions.  For if we can get enough signatures, it is our hope that we can impress upon the political parties the need to change their tactics in the future.

No.  We do not expect to have much, if any, impact upon Tuesday’s elections.  What we do hope for is that the rancor of this election season will have awakened in enough people a burning desire for change so that we can have an impact in next year’s elections, and especially in the Iowa Caucuses, which are not that far away.  And God willing, if we can be successful here, then perhaps we can serve as a model for other communities and even effect a change in the 2008 national elections.

Now I know that does sound like tilting at windmills.  In fact, one of the TV news reporters asked one of my colleagues if he didn’t think that what we were doing was rather Pollyanna-ish.  Yes, it is, he replied, but there is nothing wrong with that.  As someone later commented, there is nothing wrong with being a fool for truth.

So, with such little chance of success, why do we pursue this?  Perhaps Robert Kennedy said it best when he said, “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”

We do this - and I have done things like this practically all my life - because we know that social change is impossible unless someone is willing to act.  We know that our society has deceived many into believing that when it comes to social change, the individual is powerless, and that is not the truth.  Every individual, if they so choose, can indeed be a powerful engine for social change.  Just as a mammoth forest fire can start with but a single spark, so can the actions of one person ignite a blaze of social change - either for the better or for the worse.  When we see things that need change in our society, we should not just stand around, and moan and groan about it.  We should do something about it.  As the old Nike ad used to say, “Just do it!”

When we do it, we cannot worry about what are chances that the kindling of social discontent will be ignited by our spark.  For whether or not our spark in the end gives birth to a greater fire, it is still our responsibility, as people of conscience to strike the spark.  All that is necessary is that we believe in what we are doing.  There will be times when we will meet with success and there will be times when we won’t.  But as long as we strike the spark, never will there be times when we will be plagued with a trouble conscience born of a failure to act.

So it is with this current petition campaign.  It may go nowhere, or it may change the face of political campaigning in the Quad Cities, or Iowa, or even the nation.  But for us 32 clergy, and for all those who sign these petitions - copies of which can be found in the lobby - one thing is for certain.  We can have the personal satisfaction of knowing that when we saw a wrong, we did not remain silent and on the sidelines.  Rather we spoke out and we tried our best to do something about it; to make it right.  And I can tell you from personal experience - win, lose, or draw, it is a great feeling to know that you at least tried to do something to right a wrong.

I and my colleagues invite you to join us in our efforts to right this wrong - the wrong of politics by personal put-downs.  And I, as your rabbi, call upon you to never hesitate or be afraid to act in the face of injustice.

Robert Kennedy may have been a good Catholic but he surely understood the fundamental Jewish principle of Tikkun Olam.  For Tikkun Olam teaches us that we, too, need to “dream things that never were, and ask why not?”  Whether or not our efforts are successful, it doesn’t change our Tikkun Olam obligations.  For as it says in Pirke Avot, “Lo alecha hamlacha ligmor ve-lo ata ben horin le-hibateil mi-mena - It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, yet you are not free to desist from it.”⁴

AMEN 
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A PASSIONATE CALL FOR A RETURN TO
POSITIVE POLITICAL CAMPAIGNING

 
We, the undersigned, are deeply disturbed by the character and tone of the vast majority of political campaigns which are being conducted during the election season of 2006. 

The overwhelming use of negative campaign strategies and attack ads constituted nothing less than a national disgrace.  Negative campaigning erodes the moral fabric of our society.  In the eyes of the public, it not only diminishes the stature of the candidates, but also the importance of the offices which they seek.  Such campaign tactics generate an environment of distrust of public officials.  Even worse, by forcing the voters to choose between what is presented as “the lesser of two evils,” these strategies serve to dramatically discourage citizen participation in the electoral process. 

The American people need and deserve far more from its political candidates.  We need and deserve to have the candidates’ attentions focused on positively presenting their positions on the pressing issues of our day.  We need and deserve to hear thoughtful dialogue between the candidates on these issues.  We need and deserve to know what our potential future leaders stand for, and what they intend to accomplish should they be elected. 

Therefore, we the undersigned, believing that negative campaigning is destructive to the American democratic electoral process: 

1. Call upon political candidates to responsibly present to the public their own positions on the pressing issues of our day, refraining from irresponsible and misleading interpretations of the positions held by their opponents.
2. Call upon political candidates to cease and desist from attacking the character of their opponents.
3. Call upon political candidates to distance themselves from and denounce any political ad run by an independent source which supports their candidacy, but which also engages in the destructive practices mentioned above.
4. Call upon the American public to withhold financial support from political campaigns that engage in a strategy of negativism.
5. Call upon the news media to monitor and report upon the successes and failures of political campaigns to adhere to these principles.

 _____________________________________________________________________

Name    Address         City / State /Zip Code 
 This petition is co-sponsored by the Quad Cities Progressive Clergy and Churches United of the Quad Cities Area 
Please return your signed petition to:
Churches United of the Quad Cities Area, 630 Martin Luther King Drive, Rock Island, Illinois 61201-8337

¹  Jim Khunhenn, “Millions Spent on Negative Political Ads,” AP, October 31, 2006.

²  Michael Grunwald, “The Year of Playing Dirty: Negative Ads Get Positively Sureal”, Washington Post, October 27, 2006.

³  Barb Ickes, “Angry Voters Ask How Do I ‘Deregister’?, Quad City Times, November 3, 2006.

⁴  Pirke Avot 2.1, attributed to Rabbi Tarfon.