#Stopthesmears in political ads

I was watching CNN the other night (close your mouth, I sometimes check out the network to see how much sighing Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper are doing, or how widely Chris Cuomo can flare his nostrils) and I was unfortunate enough to see a campaign ad for some local fellow running to replace Nick Miccarelli in Harrisburg.

I haven’t been paying close attention to that race, and up until Thursday evening, I couldn’t even tell you who the Democrat or Republican candidates were. I don’t live in the district, and even if I did, I wouldn’t have voted for either of the main party representatives.

The race never even figured on my radar screen.

Until, that is, I saw the ad by a guy named Dave Delloso.

Now I expect campaign ads to be dirty, not exactly accurate and filled with hyperbole. That’s the nature of the beast.

But this ad was in a class by itself.

Considering that I had just written an oped for another paper about the tasteless ad from another Democrat, Bob Casey, who had accused Lou Barletta of hating kids with cancer (when Barletta’s own grandchild is being treated for cancer), I didn’t think that I’d see anything that could top the venality of that piece of shameless rhetoric.

But I should never underestimate the human capacity to grovel in the dirt.

I watched in horror as two women with acca-cents that made my eardrums burst and bleed started talking about how bad it was that the GOP candidate running against Delloso hadn’t demanded Nick Miccarelli’s resignation when he was accused by two women of “abusing” them.

I put the word abusing in quotation marks, because as I’ve written in the past, there remain questions about the accusers’ claims. Miccarelli has not been charged in the case, which remains under investigation. He is not running for re-election.

In this #Metoo era, you can’t say that. You must #Believethewoman, even if the woman formerly dated the target of her accusations and waited years to come out with her (or their) claims of abuse.

You must #Believethewoman even when there are no photos, no medical reports, no contemporaneous police complaints, nothing other than the ability to harness the power of a social phenomenon and make the most of it.

I guess it’s no secret that I support Nick Miccarelli in his case versus the defamation squad.

So imagine how I reacted when I saw these women complaining about someone who refused to call for the resignation of a man who was never convicted of any crime.

And then imagine how disgusted I felt when I realized that these women were being used in the campaign ad of a man who was running against the GOP candidate in the race. Dave Delloso is that man.

This isn’t about policy. This isn’t about party.

This isn’t even about the best person to fill the seat being vacated by a man who was forced out because of a whisper campaign against him.

Indeed, until Thursday when I saw that ad, I had no preference about who should win.

As I said before, I’ll never again vote for a Democrat, but I don’t feel any particular loyalty to the Republicans who couldn’t locate their spines.

But now, I want the GOP candidate to win, by default.

We cannot have in office a person who uses the pain and tragedy of another human being to boost himself into public office.

We cannot allow someone to fling mud at a person who is no longer in the race, at someone who has been vilified and railroaded by a movement that is fueled by anger, righteous indignation and a desire for vengeance.

We cannot, in my humble opinion, reward that kind of conduct.

I have no delusions that smear campaigns will end. I understand that dirty ads work.

Human nature being what it is, we find it easier to vote against someone, than to vote for another someone.

So I hope the people who hate the excesses of the #Metoo movement vote against Dave Delloso.

It would be nice to send a message of #Stopthesmears.