Rossi and friends continue campaign of fear

October 13, 12:40 PMSnohomish County Progressive ExaminerChad Shue

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It seems that the only lesson the Republican Party has learned from 9-11 is that fear and hate mongering are tools for running election campaigns.

Since the 2004 elections, Republicans at all levels of government have run campaigns featuring ads that compare their Democratic challengers with Osama bin Laden or other terrorist figures. In races locally, the folks on the right have used the US Postal Service to send out literature that actually tell voters that their Democratic opponents have purposely released criminals into their neighborhoods to prey on the innocent.

This year we have John McCain and Sarah Palin accusing Barack Obama of “palling around with terrorists” and constantly asserting that he is ‘not one of us’ while here at home we have Dino Rossi and his surrogates suggesting that Chris Gregoire is ‘dishonest’, receiving ’payoffs’, and most recently, guilty of releasing hundreds of sex offenders onto our streets without a means to track them.
 
On the national level it seems that this type of campaigning is finally starting to lose its luster as Obama’s poll numbers continue to climb while McCain’s are in free fall. Here in Washington however it is still too early to tell. Even through the Rossi campaign is being actively challenged by such groups at the Spokane Tribe and a diverse collection of law enforcement officials from around the state; and the candidate himself is under a cloud of suspicion over alleged illegal campaign contributions, the poll numbers for this race are still too close for comfort.

It is time for this type of campaigning to stop and I hope the voters in Washington State will send the same message to Dino Rossi that sheriffs, prosecutors, and others from across the state have already sent:

These attacks trivialize the work we do every day and exploit a parent’s worst fears. And to what end? So that in less than thirty days a parent will be frightened into putting a check mark next to Republican Dino Rossi’s name. These attacks are disgusting, unethical and desperate.

There are two kinds of leaders; those who mis-lead through fear and those who inspire through their actions. We have a clear choice again this year.

Peace,
Chad Shue