To The Editor
Hear that? It’s a collective groan heard all across PA as the election shifts into full gear. We are bombarded with political ads: print ads, internet pop-ups, TV, radio and robo-calls. Primary ads are even more bizarre than general election ones. Republicans attack Republicans. Democrats attack Democrats. The ads are ugly. I think I speak for most ordinary citizens when I say I would rather see ads that show us what distinguishes the candidates’ views from each other, not ads that aim to deceive the very voters they claim to care about.
Even local campaigns are not immune to controversy. Recently, Josh Maxwell complained that his opponent for PA State Representative, Josh Young, had used a post Maxwell “liked” on Facebook as ammunition in a mailer. I agree that it’s odd that a candidate would use Facebook activity to illustrate his opponent’s view, but one could give him the benefit of the doubt: Whether to allow the exit of West Chester University from the state’s higher education system is an extremely important issue, and an issue that Maxwell has been reluctant to take a stand on.
Everyone knows that when you “like” something on Facebook, you are indicating that you agree with it. This may have been the only way Young could draw a distinction between his view and Maxwell’s. You could accuse Young’s campaign of presumptuousness in this matter, but since Maxwell admitted he “liked” the post, it’s not dishonest to mention it. Ironically, Maxwell took to Facebook to complain about his opponent highlighting his Facebook activity.
Round two in this battle hit my mailbox on Thursday. I often chuck mailers right into the recycling bin as fast as they pour in, but this one caught my eye. Something was visually wrong with it. The mailer was from Maxwell and contained a photo of a demonstration. The signs people held said things like “Joshua Young betrayed students”. I’m sure many people glanced at this and thought, “Wow, that guy must be awful if all those people staged a demonstration against him.” But the photo didn’t make sense to me. Why was it that all if the protesters’ backs were turned, but their signs were facing the camera? It looked photo shopped to me. And it was. With the help of an online image search, I found the original unaltered photo. None of the signs contained the slogans that appeared on Maxwell’s mailer. His campaign had doctored the photo to depict a protest against his opponent that had not occurred. That they actually took the time to alter the image and present it to voters as truth, still has me flabbergasted. This was not just an assumption, it was something darker. This was a blatant lie. I’m sure an excuse could be made. One could say “Everyone does it. This is just standard practice,” when called out on a photo shopped mailer image. But if Maxwell’s wanted to dramatize a protest, why not disclose that it is a dramatization unless your intent was to deceive voters? Problem is these tactics work; otherwise, they would not continue.
Why do politicians make it so difficult to get to the truth? Is the goal here to trick people into voting for them? Is that what we’ve come to? No wonder voter apathy is at an all-time high and “They’re all liars!” is a common refrain. To accept deception as the status quo is to facilitate the apathy of people who might otherwise be involved in voting and running.
My mother passed away in January at the age of 92. She never missed a vote, and cast her final one when she lived at St. Martha’s Villa in Downingtown. She was sharp as a tack, and passionate about history, politics and current events. But I wonder if she would have been so put off by today’s ugliness that even she would give up on it. I’m betting she wouldn’t. I’m betting she would do what she could, no matter how small, to show politicians that this must change. So this letter is my tribute to my mother, my father who fought in WWII and everyone else who still holds out hope that we can somehow move beyond deceit and on to reasoned discourse and fair debate in our elections. People fought and died so we could vote. Voting must go back to being considered a privilege and not a futile decision between bad and worse.
Patricia Mellen
Downingtown
