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CITIZENS
for
Limited Taxation & Government
Post Office Box 408 Peabody, Massachusetts
01960 (617) 248-0022
Barbara's
Bi-Weekly Column
The Patriot
Ledger
Saturday, August 29, 1998
A Primary Decision: Values vs.
Issues
By Barbara Anderson
It's not easy being a voter.
Do your civic duty, they tell us. Just get out to vote, they say. Sure, the getting out's
the easy part.
Somehow, every year, I mark my ballot. I can't relate to those who think that their right
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will always be there saving their seat in
the representative democracy they call home, even if they never make the civic effort to
secure it.
I've tried not to be the kind of voter who
chooses a leader because he's cute. I don't care if he belongs to the same political party
as my great-grandfather, long-deceased along with whatever principles that party may have
had a century ago, though it probably didn't. I mean, does anyone still seriously believe
that the Democrat Party is for the workingman, and the Republican Party cares about free
enterprise?
The Libertarian Party really does care about
liberty, but a lot more liberty than security-minded Americans want or can handle without
a proper education, which they're not going to get as long as the government runs the
schools. So most of us find ourselves choosing among the anointed front-runners -- and
sometimes we have to choose between issues and character.
I can relate to those voters who supported
President Clinton rather than a decent, honest man with whom they disagree on issues that
are important to them. I voted for Richard Nixon because he promised to end the military
draft, which was my Big Issue at the time. He kept his promise so, despite wage and price
controls and dirty tricks, I stayed loyal until he lied to us. Then, unlike some Clinton
apologists, I expected the liar's resignation.
At the state level, the stakes aren't as universally high, but the choices can be as
complicated. Take mine, for instance, in the coming Massachusetts primary.
As an Independent voter, I have been urged by
some activists to choose between the two Republicans. But while I have a personal and
activist affinity with Joe Malone, I have a twenty-year history with Paul Cellucci too.
Both these candidates have supported CLT&G tax-limitation initiatives, and neither of
them has ever lied to me.
I also have friends in both campaigns. If I
choose sides I might really anger some of them; my staying neutral merely annoys a lot of
them equally.
So I have this primary plan to vote for Patricia
McGovern. A critic of my decision complains that she hasn't taken the "no new
taxes" pledge. Well, of course she hasn't; she's a big government, big-spending,
tax-raising liberal who calls Mike Dukakis her favorite recent governor! I won't vote for
her in the general election and I hope you won't either.
But here's the "issues vs. character"
thing again. I've found Pat McGovern to be a decent person who can admit to a mistake, as
she has called her since-repealed sales tax on services, and who wouldn't deliberately
hurt innocent people for political gain.
And my Big personal Issue this year is the Fells
Acre Day Care case. The Amirault family was convicted of child-abuse during the 1980s'
national hysteria that sent innocent people all over the country to jail: my friend Gerald
Amirault is one of the few still incarcerated. If his present appeal fails, he may need to
be proposed for release next year by an honorable, open-minded governor.
I can expect a fair hearing from, in alphabetical
order, Cellucci, Malone and McGovern. We don't have a chance with Scott Harshbarger. He
refuses to admit that his state prosecutors made a mistake, despite all the new scientific
evidence to the contrary and the integrity of the two trial court judges who set Cheryl
Amirault free and ordered her a new trail.
If Harshbarger wins the general election, Gerald
could be imprisoned for many more years, a victim of the worst injustice that this
commonwealth has dealt since the Salem witch trials.
Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but I personally
care more about justice and decency than state taxes; I can always leave Massachusetts if
the taxes get worse. Gerald, however, can't just walk out of jail without the involvement
of people of conscience, and if it takes voting once for a liberal against a worse
liberal, that's what I'll do. Then I'll hope that in the end, voters will keep a balance
in the State House by choosing the "no new taxes" candidate for the job,
whichever one wins the Republican primary.
Barbara Anderson is co-director of
Citizens for Limited Taxation and Government. Her bi-weekly column is syndicated and
appears in the (Quincy) Patriot Ledger, (Salem) Evening News, (Attleboro) Sun-Chronicle,
(Worcester) Telegram-Gazette and others.
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