The Fake On the Right

Don’t be fooled or surprised by the tactics of the
unscrupulous who use false morality and deceit to gain
power for their own benefit

By James Preston Allen, Publisher

The just-released attack ad against Janice Hahn, who is running in the special election for the 36th Congressional District, has been called “the most offensive, racist, sexist ad I’ve seen in all my years in politics,” by Jonathan Parker, the political director for Emily’s List. The opposing religious right-wing Republican candidate, Craig Huey, denies any involvement with either the creation or release of this demeaning attack ad, which features an image of Janice Hahn’s face pasted over the face of a bikini-clad pole dancer. The video also depicts African-American men as criminals waving guns and stuff- ing dollar bills in the dancer’s panties.

This kind of personal political attack recalls the kind of Republican dirty tricks that once got the likes of Richard Nixon elected to Congress and would probably embarrass even Hahn’s most harshest critics––Jane Barton, Anthony Santich and others, who have frequently condemned Councilwoman Hahn’s tenure in the L.A. City Council. I have to constantly remind these same critics of the bad behavior of Hahn’s predecessor, Rudy Svorinich Jr., while he was in office and caution the rest of you that if Janice Hahn defeats this anti-choice, conservative teabagger Huey, Rudy Jr. will be back for one more bite of the apple.

The problem with the right-wing leadership that is emerging is that not only are they too far to the right socially and politically, but they don’t fundamentally believe in government at all, both locally and nationally. Now, I am not a huge fan of big government, but I’m also not so naïve as to believe that big business, those “too big to fail” corporations or those that hold monopolistic control of the marketplace, shouldn’t be regulated and controlled for the safety and benefit of the entire nation. Government’s true mission is to do for us that which we cannot accomplish individually by ourselves and that which private corporations won’t or can’t do for the benefit of society for a reasonable profit.

For those who object to this definition, let me just remind you all of the Enron gaming scandal of the California electric market or the failure of the subprime mortgage bonds that collapsed our national financial markets creating the Great Recession. Both caused by an ideologically driven right-wing, anti-government belief in an “unregulated free market”—free of government regulation that protects the interests of the people and the nation first, not placing corporate profits first.

Craig Huey and the gaggle of potential presidential candidates throwing barbs at President Barack Obama are just this kind of antigovernment demagogues, who preach “small government,” and then, like George Bush before them, explode the federal budget by handing out billions on insider contracts and bailouts to an even smaller elite of wealthy contributors. Then they object to raising taxes on the wealthiest of these same few, saying that the “trickle down” from these tax breaks grows the economy. That is patently untrue! The choice is simple once you wipe away the propaganda, dirty tricks and the wall of noise that pervades the corporate dominated media. You can either give Wall Street carte blanche or you can give Main Street and the middle class a hand up. Janice Hahn will represent the common people. It’s in her political DNA. Craig Huey won’t! Huey is going to connive and slander his way through this campaign––dirty tricks and all. You can be fooled by these tactics or be complacent that Hahn will win this special election without your vote.

This vile ad shows just how low Hahn’s opposition and the Republican party will stoop to defeat her and return this district to days long ago when it was represented by Bob “B-1 Bomber” Dornan. There are just a few weeks left in this campaign that will have significant repercussions nationally if not locally if Huey were to somehow dirty-trick his way into Congress. Don’t be fooled or surprised by the tactics of the unscrupulous who use false morality and deceit to gain power only to use it for their own benefit.