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Robo-Call Frenzy

Originally Published in the Frederick News-Post

Government Transparency

by Marta Hummel Mossburg

OP-EDS

Lying is wrong. Lying to suppress the black vote to win an election is evil and stupid.

The fact that election night robo-calls to black districts that told recipients to "relax" because Democrat Martin O'Malley had won were even considered should have prompted mass resignations in the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Robert Ehrlich. The same goes for a strategy to create "confusion, emotionalism and frustration among African-American Democrats."

If a candidate's only hope is to try to trick people to vote for him or her or to stay home on Election Day, why is the person running in the first place? And why would anyone work for that person? He or she would have no moral authority left if the campaign won.

Besides, relying on dirty, racist tactics speaks to the fact that either the ideas behind the campaign are bankrupt or the strategy is wrong. It also reveals a worldview trapped in the 1960s.

It's not just the two Ehrlich campaign aides indicted in connection with sending the robo-calls who have viewed blacks as easily manipulated, however.

Most news coverage of the indictments has focused on the civil rights aspect of the case.

Only highlighting that side paints African-Americans as vulnerable rubes incapable of making their own decisions.

As Delegate Dereck E. Davis, a Prince George's County Democrat, told another paper, it is "close to being offensive" that people think blacks would believe the phone call. "I think we need to maintain perspective and respect the intelligence of the so-called victims."

Martin O'Malley won the election by double digits because he grabbed the hearts and minds of a majority of voters. Obviously the robo-calls didn't work. The response to them, however, would make it seem as if they had and that they are used everywhere around the nation.

"We know this goes on behind closed doors and this is going to make us more aware for a long time," Gerald Stansbury, president of the Maryland state conference of the NAACP, told The Washington Post. "It's an appalling situation and it's going to open a lot of people's eyes, not just here but everywhere."

Times have changed. Americans would not have elected an African-American president if they held the same racial views as they did in 1968. And acting as if blacks are always potential victims in the making ironically puts those who hold that view in the same camp as the Ehrlich campaign aides under indictment.

Last, what role does free speech play in this case? Politicians mislead their constituents about many things. Former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who sent lewd photos of himself to women over the Internet and then lied about doing it, is the latest to come under public scrutiny. Should prosecutors indict every public figure for untruths? And what about those who sell products that never live up to their pitches on infomercials? How could the legal system keep up with the workload?

The fact that a couple of people made bad decisions is very clear. But all Marylanders should be thankful that the worldview they espouse is long dead.