Who is speaking and why?

by Tony Hudson, Stevensville

One need go no further than the mailbox to realize another election season is upon us. Inside were the usual glossy flyers telling me who to vote for, who not to vote for, and all the reasons why. I filed them where most of them appropriately belong, the trash can. Normally I file them in bulk. This time I tossed them in one at a time.

As I closed the lid, jumped back in my truck, and started down the road, a thought crossed my mind. Not one of those pieces of mail had an individual signature on it.

Candidates are required to sign their names to documents. Citizens sign their names to letters to the editor. Students sign their names to assignments in school. From an early age we are taught that if we wish to be taken seriously, we must stand behind our words.

I couldn’t help myself. I went back to the trash can for a second look. Sorting through baler twine and hay leaves, I retrieved these works of art.

After carefully looking through the polished logos, the corporate names, and the super PAC disclosures, I noticed something else. Not a single piece of mail contained the name of an individual willing to stand behind the claims being made. No phone number. No personal responsibility. Just organizations speaking through branding and the usual dehumanizing rhetoric.

That raises a simple question: how much credibility should we give to someone unwilling to sign their name, yet eager to make sweeping claims and accusations?

In school, a nameless assignment was considered a failed assignment. Yet in politics we often give enormous influence to messages delivered by anonymous organizations making sweeping claims about candidates, their voting records, or who is supposedly the most constitutional, the most progressive, or the most religious.

A voting record, after all, may be the easiest thing in the world for an elected official to accumulate. Showing up and voting yes or no is not the same as accomplishing something meaningful. Real leadership requires more. It requires the courage to go against the grain when necessary and the humility to explain those decisions to the people being represented. It also requires the willingness to own those decisions.

So when slick political ads appear in your mailbox or on your social media feed, ask yourself something simple.

Who is speaking, and why?

Do we want our public life shaped by nameless organizations hiding behind corporate logos, or by individuals willing to place their names at the bottom of the page?

So I will end with one request. Ask yourself the same question.

Who is speaking, and why?

Is it a better argument, or simply a bigger stick?

In a republic, that difference matters.