Pappy Maverick and "Opposition Research"

Many years ago there was a popular TV western called Maverick, which chronicled the adventures of a gambler in the Old West. James Garner played Brett Maverick and Roger Moore (later known for playing James Bond) played his English cousin Beau Maverick. Never seen on the show, but often represented by the little pearls of his wisdom that Brett often quoted, was his father, Pappy Maverick. Pappy once said, according to Brett, "It's fine to turn over a new leaf, but there's always somebody trying to snoop through the old pages." When I stumbled onto this quote (in Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Colossal Collection of "Quotable" Quotes), it got me to thinking about our upcoming elections and the unfortunate practice of "opposition research."

Both of our major political parties, and every serious candidate for office at almost any level, has a part of his or her campaign staff dedicated to "opposition research" - a relentless search through the life of the opponent to find anything embarrassing or illegal, or anything that can be somehow twisted around to look embarrassing or illegal, that can be used to harm the opponent's campaign. The opposition researchers will carefully examine everything you've ever written or been recorded saying; every book you've ever checked out of the library; every website you've ever visited; and everything you've ever been observed doing. This information will be used shamelessly to make you look utterly unfit to breathe air, much less hold public office.

I think this is terrible.

I have actually thought (in my more insane moments) of running for local or statewide office, on the assumption that I couldn't possibly do worse than the crop of bozos we have now. But each time I think about that, I think about what an opposition researcher could do with the details of my life. You would probably be shocked to know that even a saintly and widely-admired person like myself more than likely has a moldy skeleton or two peeking out from behind the accumulated junk deep in the forgotten back of my life's closet. You probably do, too.

Counting this one, I have written 416 posts to this blog, many of them strongly opinionated and guaranteed to gore someone's ox. Between my college years and the present, I've written hundreds (if not thousands) of letters to friends and family, many of them including details of my activities that might be embarrassing today (not illegal, though. Probably. I hope.). I have lots of friends who would say nice things about me, but an opposition researcher won't want to talk to them...they'll seek out the people (few in number, but out there nevertheless) who would tell them what a miserable waste of skin I am.

How have we come to this? Why is it more important to denigrate the opponent than it is to stand on one's own record and clearly express one's own positions? I've written in this space before about linguistics professor Deborah Tannenbaum's marvelous book The Argument Culture, in which she documents the decline of civil discourse in modern life in general and politics in particular. If you haven't read it, you should...it will give you a new and very different outlook on how we treat each other. You might also go back a few days and read my post titled Flip-Flops and Reptiles of the Mind, which addressed this topic from a bit different perspective. It'll make you want to wash your hands each time you read a political tract, mark a ballot, or pull the lever on a voting machine.

Our presidential election is just over a year away. Thanks to the opposition researchers, I know how terrible each of the candidates is. What I don't know is where they stand. I have a year to find out, but I'm not holding my breath for a successful search.

Have a good day. Vote for me...you could do worse. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo