You shall.
And If it's really preachy, you can just call it a parable.
It IS a parable of sorts. Seriously, now, this is an original work and it is copyrighted by me. Just by posting it here, that doesn't mean that I am giving anyone free license to reprint it or otherwise make money off of it. Also, the people, organizations and events involved in the story are fictitious and any similarity between any persons or events or companies or organizations or yadda, yadda, yadda, is purely yadda. I mean, coincidental.
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The appearance of influence or access, furthermore, will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy. By definition, an independent expenditure is political speech presented to the electorate that is not coordinated with a candidate. The fact that a corporation, or any other speaker, is willing to spend money to try to persuade voters presupposes that the people have the ultimate influence over elected officials.
—Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the United States Supreme Court in
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
The majority declares by fiat that the appearance of undue influence by high-spending corporations “will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy.” The electorate itself has consistently indicated otherwise, both in opinion polls … and in the laws its representatives have passed….
—Justice John Paul Stevens, dissenting in the same case
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It was a tough campaign.
A month before Election Day, Wendy Wagner had been trailing in the polls by five points. Her opponent, an incumbent two-term representative named David Snyder, appeared to be on his way to a third term in the United States House of Representatives.
And then the “Nut Case” ads hit the airwaves.
The “Nut Case” ads were attack ads, and made no pretense at being anything else. They accused Snyder of having a long-standing history of mental illness, which he needed to treat with medication. One ad cited examples of erratic behavior that were said to occur when Snyder forgot to take his medication. Another ad presented video clips showing Snyder speaking in an incoherent fashion, the ad attributing the incoherency to mental instability. A third ad itemized Snyder’s inconsistency in political positions concluded by asking “Do we want our interests to be represented by a man who has shown that he is mentally incapable of remembering his political views of the previous week?”
The ads quickly became known as the “Nut Case” ads, because they all challenged Snyder’s mental balance and competence. The term “Nut Case” never appeared in any of the ads themselves.
When Snyder was asked about the “Nut Case” ads, he candidly admitted that he had sought counseling for depression after his daughter’s death, and that he had taken medication to deal with the depression. He adamantly denied, however, that the depression was an ongoing problem or that he had any other mental difficulties. He condemned the ads for “avoiding a rational discussion of the issues while engaging in reckless character assassination.” He dismissed the video clips as being “taken out of context” and he characterized the ads as “a pack of lies, cooked up by the desperate Wagner camp.”
Snyder was wrong. The ads had not been created by Wagner’s campaign, and their appearance on television was a surprise to everyone in the Wagner campaign. Wagner even issued a statement saying that she did not create, encourage or endorse the ads, and she wanted nothing to do with them. “As far as I am concerned,” she announced, “this campaign is about the issues, not baseless, scandalous opinions, which are solely those of the author, and which I do not share.”
The author of the ads, according to the ads themselves, was a group called “Citizens for Honesty and Responsibility in Congress,” a group about which no news reporter or investigator could find any solid information. This group—assuming it was indeed a group— seemed to be well-funded, but there was no way to find out the source of its funding or how many people were in it or who the leaders were. No one seemed to be able to find out whether the people behind the group were Snyder’s own constituents, or if they were even Americans.
Packs of lies or not, the “Nut Case” ads aired repeatedly in the weeks before the election, and Snyder found his lead in the polls slipping. The “Nut Case” ads were having an effect. Instead of being rewarded for his candor, Snyder found himself losing support. Soon two more “Nut Case” ads appeared on the airwaves, under the name of the same organization, which included video excerpts of misstatements and mispronunciations by Snyder, along with claims that these abnormalities were due to patterns of mental imbalance and longstanding mental problems.
One week before the election, the Snyder-Wagner race was a statistical dead heat. On the Sunday before Election Day, Wagner took a five-point lead. In response to pollsters’ inquiries, many voters mentioned Snyder’s mental problems as one of their principal considerations when deciding to support Wagner.
On Election Day, Wagner won by nearly ten percentage points. As Snyder gave his concession speech, he expressed bitterness about “the underhanded personal attacks leveled at me by a faceless, cowardly organization,” and he began to weep openly. His defiant, tearful speech cementing in the minds of some of the voters that the ads were right, and that Snyder did not have the mental toughness to be in Congress.
In her victory speech, Wagner praised Snyder and criticized the “Nut Case” ads for the role they played. A reporter asked Wagner whether she wanted to come clean and admit that she was actually behind the “Nut Case” ads. Wagner denied it. “These attack ads helped me to win,” she admitted, “but they made me ashamed. I hated these ads, I repudiated them, and I found them disgraceful and an offense to our democratic process. I wish they had never been made.”
“Do you know who made them?” a reporter shouted.
“I have no idea.”
Thus the tough campaign came to an end. It was not just a tough campaign; it was a dirty campaign. Wagner’s feelings were mixed. She didn’t want to win dirty, but she did want to win. She felt awful that these vile attack ads had been wielded to bolster her candidacy, but felt some satisfaction in knowing that neither she nor her staff had had any hand in them, and she could honestly say that her own hands were clean.
A few weeks later, she took her seat in Congress.
Snyder went to work for a law firm in Washington DC.
A little over a year later, Wagner welcomed one of her constituents to her office. His name was D. Edward June. June had started, and now ran, a successful business that installed electrical power management systems in businesses and residences. June had started this company with an inheritance from his mother five years earlier, and had built the company from nothing. His company now employed over 250 people, and June was regarded as one of the shining stars of the business community.
He had been requesting an appointment with Wagner for several weeks. On a sunny Monday morning he strode into her office. Wagner and June shook hands, and asked about each other’s health. Presently, Wagner gestured that June should sit. June waited for Wagner to seat herself, and then he eased into his chair and got down to business.
“Congresswoman Wagner, the energy bill is simply not going to work,” June declared. “There are insufficient incentives for solar and wind upgrades, and no incentive at all for efficient power storage and management.”
Wagner smiled. It was no secret that June sold solar and wind electrical generation apparatus in addition to his power management systems. Increased government incentives in any form would mean more consumers would be able to afford what June had to sell, and the result would be more sales, and more profit and wealth for him.
“One step at a time, Mr. June,” the congresswoman cautioned. “We don’t have the support in the House to increase incentives, at least not yet. And the feeling in the Senate is that giving too much incentive to these technologies is risky.”
“Risky?” scoffed June. “You’d have to be some kind of a nut case to think that.”
Wagner shuddered. She had not heard the term “nut case” in over a year.
“These technologies are proven, Congresswoman,” June continued. “They aren’t speculative, they aren’t snake oil. But they are expensive, and your average homeowner and business owner cannot afford them. The House is at a tipping point here, and you can tip it in the right direction. The House needs to step in to make these technologies affordable, and when they do, you know what happens: production gets stimulated, prices go down, consumers save money on energy in the long run, and the country’s energy independence is enhanced.”
“And you make a lot of money,” Wagner deadpanned.
“I already have a lot of money,” June replied, laughing politely. “Sure, it would be good for me, financially, but this is really for the good of the country, and you know that to be true. Even your predecessor, Representative Snyder, thought at one time that this was an important step for us.”
“David did, at one time?” Wagner wondered why June was bringing up Snyder’s name.
“Well, yes, but he disappointed me by changing his mind when it came time to vote. He never offered a rational explanation for his change in position, either. It seemed to me he wasn’t thinking clearly about the future.”
Wagner squinted. Did June just suggest that David Snyder had some mental issues?
“But that’s ancient history,” June went on. “This bill before the House is an entirely new bill, and Representative Snyder is…” he cleared his throat, “… no longer with us. As for building political support, there are some recent developments that may be of interest to you. A television campaign is in the works to try to build more grassroots support for the technological incentives. I fully expect that support for the incentives will grow. When you support these incentives, you be standing with an expanding group.”
“A television campaign is in the works? Sponsored by …?”
“Sponsored by an industry publicity group,” June completed the sentence. “The group is ‘Citizens for Responsible Energy,’ or ‘Citizens for Independent Energy’; the name is something like that.”
Wagner clenched her teeth. It sounded a lot like another “Citizens” group that, like the Citizens for Honesty group that attacked David Snyder, which everyone seemed to agree wasn’t really backed by any actual US citizens.
“To be quite honest with you,” June added as he leaned forward in his chair, “Even though I’m not making the commercials myself, I’m giving serious consideration to contributing a modest sum toward making these commercials, because I think the issue is important. Television can be an effective way to get out a message, as I’m sure you know. I’ve seen some of the preliminary commercials, by the way. I can assure you that they are informative and fair. But they are also rather … uh, critical … of members of Congress who oppose the incentives.”
Pressure, thought Wagner, he’s trying to apply pressure. He’s not just trying to persuade me. He’s trying to scare me. He went out of his way to mention David Snyder and the “Nut Case” ads, and how he’s telling me about political commercials that might make me look bad if I oppose him.
“Just so I’m clear, Congresswoman,” June went on, “I know you’re assembling funds for your re-election bid, and the campaign season will be here before we know it. But that is NOT why I’m here. I’m not here to discuss financial contributions for your upcoming race, or to request anything in exchange for financial support.”
Smooth, thought Wagner. You expressly denied that there’s any quid pro quo. Are you worried that someone might be listening in on us?
June smiled pleasantly. “But I can say that pushing for greater incentives would be for the benefit of the American People. I might add that, even if the American People don’t prevail this year, it would be important for you to be in Congress to push for incentives next year. Congresswoman, if the American People have your support, then you’ll have my support.”
And if not, I’ll run television attack ads against you. To Wagner, this seemed to be the logical next sentence.
And the next logical sentence after that was: The way I ran attack ads against David Snyder.
“It’s been informative, Mr. June,” Wagner announced, “but I’m afraid I must get ready for another appointment.” Wagner and June rose. They shook hands and exchanged final pleasantries.
Once June left the office, Wagner sank into her seat.
She just met the man behind the “Nut Case” attack ads, hadn’t she?
She pondered that question. The more she mused about it, the more likely it seemed. June was trying to tell her, without explicitly telling her, that it was HE who had financed that smear campaign, HE who had insulted Snyder’s mental capacity, HE who had destroyed David Snyder’s career as a lawmaker.
HE was the one who made it possible for her to be a member of Congress. HE was the one to whom she owed a favor.
HE was the one who could destroy her if she didn’t act as he wished.
June and his friends in the industry were almost certainly wealthy enough to fund those “Nut Case” ads. By his demeanor, June seemed capable of fostering such a smear. He certainly seemed to be cold-blooded enough to portray a man’s grief for a lost child as a mental illness, and simple slips of the tongue as mental imbalance. The ads were disgraceful, but there was no denying they were effective.
Wagner got the benefit of the ads, even though she repudiated them and had not known who was behind them.
Until today, that is. David Snyder had disappointed D. Edward June, and June spent a ton of cash to remedy that disappointment. And today, June finally came to ask for a favor in return. That was what today’s little meeting was all about, wasn’t it?
Before meeting with June, Wagner had been ambivalent about the energy incentives bill. She generally favored energy independence and development of clean energy, but she was generally opposed to government giveaways of tax dollars that principally benefitted private industry. The meeting with June had changed everything. She was still ambivalent about incentives, but now her political career was at stake. All the work she had done in the past year—most of it having nothing to do with energy incentives—was now in jeopardy. All the legislation she’d sponsored, all of the consensuses she’d built, all of the committee compromises she’d helped put together, all of those could be lost—wasted—if she became unpopular. If she didn’t support the incentives that June wanted, he’d broadcast attack ads, slandering her the way he slandered David Snyder. The fact that she was hard-working and honest didn’t matter. The fact that she had no skeletons in her closet was irrelevant. The fact that most voters denied that they were influenced by attack ads was irrelevant, since the effect of the ads on voters as a group was undeniable. If she went against June, he’d conjure ups a skeleton for her, and use it to destroy her reputation and strip her of her job. He’d lie about her and people—not everyone, but enough to tip the scales—would believe his lies. He did it to Snyder; he could do it to her.
And what could she do? When she took her seat in Congress, she had made a vow to herself that she would never be bullied.
But was she really being bullied, or just … politically influenced? Perhaps even persuaded? Wagner wasn’t so sure. June hadn’t been rude and he hadn’t asked Wagner to do anything improper. He hadn’t actually threatened to defame her or otherwise hurt her, not really. There was nothing wrong with him saying that he would help spread a message that promoted new sources of energy, and every person has the right of free speech, doesn’t he? Every person has the right to try to urge public servants to adopt policies, right? Besides, Wagner admitted to herself, some of what June said WAS true; the people were beginning to demand changes in energy policy, and they wanted their energy bills to be more affordable. The more she thought about it, the more she thought that she might have to give the question a fresh look. She would have to think about it. She would have to sleep on it.
The next day she made a telephone call to June. “Edward,” Wagner began, “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about our discussion yesterday. I just wanted to let you know that I feel strongly about increasing our country’s use of clean and renewable energy, and it seems to me that the best way to move in that direction is by putting some incentives in place.”
For the next twenty minutes, they discussed potential incentives: tax credits, coupons, rebates, contract packages, regulatory exemptions, intellectual property fast-tracking, forgivable loans and outright grants. Wagner seemed open to them all. She committed to no specific incentive plan, but June commented that he was delighted to hear that she had “decided to move in the right direction.”
“I certainly will be working hard to build up political support for a viable solution,” Wagner concluded, “and I expect that the efforts of others—and you, of course—will help marshal that political support.”
“I’m sure those efforts will, Congresswoman.”
After June hung up his phone, he found himself grinning.
That went well.
And it had gone pretty much according to plan. June had thought he could sway Representative Wagner on the incentives issue if she understood that he was the one behind the devastating political attack ads that helped her take office. Naturally, he couldn’t take responsibility explicitly. For one thing, coming right out and saying “I was behind the ‘Nut Case’ ads” would have been at the very least bad manners, and would have been at the worst a felonious bribe or threat.
And for still another, it would have been untrue.
June never had anything to do with the “Nut Case” ads, and even as wealthy as he was, he could not have afforded a media blitz like that.
June had gambled that those who had concocted the “Nut Case” ads would never show their faces. The fact that the money behind the ads was heavily laundered by dozens accounting tricks, and the fact that the people behind the ads were well-hidden by a maze of corporate shells, meant that whoever wanted to destroy David Snyder would also want to remain unknown. Rumor had it that the source of the money behind the attack ads was Asia, probably a few wealthy foreign individuals who found some of David Snyder’s protectionist attitudes bothersome. To them, Snyder was an irritant. They didn’t care who replaced him in the United States House, so long as he was replaced.
Whoever they were, they’d gotten what they’d wanted. Snyder was gone. They couldn’t or wouldn’t ask for any favors from Wagner in return.
So what the hell, June thought, Wagner owes SOMEBODY a favor. It may as well be me.
