All other things being equal, I will vote for the candidate in any particular race who is the subject of an attack ad. If they all are, I will cast my ballot for the candidate subject to the most vicious and misleading attack.
I decided this at 2:18 p.m. Thursday. I worked in Fayetteville that day and went to my house to use my computer. I found a big, professionally done flier in my mailbox. The flier accused one of the candidates for our state Supreme Court of helping "set a convicted child rapist free."
Now here is something hardly anyone would know about me. One of the most shocking, unsettling things I ever covered in a 37-year-to-date career of covering shocking, unsettling things for a living was a rape trial in Malvern almost three decades ago. The victim was a little girl. I found out when I got to the trial that she bore a more-than-passing resemblance to my first daughter.
The particulars of the case are too shocking to repeat here. Suffice it to say that I support the death penalty and, if I were king, that penalty would apply to people convicted of raping a child. There is nothing more loathsome anybody can be accused of, in my books, than committing such a rape. So one might think I am as likely as anyone to be triggered by the claim of letting such a rapist go free.
But that monster in Malvern had a lawyer. That lawyer did his job. That monster had a jury. The jurors did their duty. They listened to all the evidence before rendering a verdict at the trial. That trial had a judge. That judge made sure the law was applied in an even-handed, justice-seeking manner. If that judge or the authorities who brought the case before him had committed some act of injustice, then that monster of a defendant would have every right to a new trial.
The candidate attacked in the flier was part of the 4-to-1 majority on the state Court of Appeals who reversed a rape conviction that was clearly flawed. Even the one appeals judge who dissented agreed that the trial judge had erred but argued the error was not serious enough for a retrial.
The case I covered all those years ago in Malvern had direct, indisputable physical evidence. The case that was reversed and was then exploited by the flier did not. That case's evidence was all circumstantial.
The rape of a child is horrendous. Sending someone to prison branded as someone who would do that, however, is no small matter. Accusing someone of being guilty of that after his conviction is overturned, by the way, is no small matter either.
The state Supreme Court is a wronged defendant's last chance for justice. It is the last check and balance upon authorities who abuse their power. The last kind of person anyone should want on any state's court of last resort is somebody who might, even in passing, think: "Well, I know what the law and justice would dictate but that might not look good on a flier."
Principles matter. Justice matters. Two wrongs do not make a right. They never will.
The state Supreme Court is supposed to decide matters of law and principle. Finding and sticking to principle is what the state Supreme Court is for. A judge who can stick to principle is exactly what we should look for in these elections.
Our politics are mean. They are also lazy. Voters look too readily for any excuse not to vote for someone. That makes choices easy -- and often wrong.
It was no coincidence the negative flier was black with white or yellow lettering. It is also no coincidence that the flier by an aligned group arrived in the same day's mail. The "good" flier extolled the virtues of another candidate in the race and was white with black or blue lettering with red tags -- red, white and blue, and very largely white.
The solution to negative campaigning is not nanny-state rules about who can campaign and in what manner. The solution is for voters to recognize when they are getting played with cheap stunts by mean, cynical people. The solution is for this kind of campaigning is for it to backfire.
I am not going to hold my breath until that happens, but will do my part from last Thursday on.
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Doug Thompson is a political reporter and columnist for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat- Gazette. Email him at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWADoug
Commentary on 05/19/2018