Jackson, Low down and dirty in the US presidential race

Panama’s Roman Catholic hierarchy isn’t really accustomed to the freewheeling debates that characterize democratic societies. Thus they condemned the tone of Panama’s recent election campaign, which was actually pretty tame. As in 1999, it seemed that the bishops looked askance at any challenger's criticism of the job that his or her incumbent opponent did.

Of course, there was --- and is --- quite a bit of hatred in Panamanian politics, most of it lying just below the surface of the national discourse. For example, the only shred of logic José Miguel Alemán’s lame appeal that he was the only candidate with a chance to beat the PRD rested upon the unstated premise that the Democratic Revolutionary Party is this collection of bad guys that deserved to be defeated. And in the mirror image, the PRD blasted both Alemán and Endara as two candidates from the Arnulfista tradition, an argument that only made sense to those who really dislike Arnulfismo.

(And yes, history does give each side its ammunition, what with Arnulfo Arias’s racism and his cozy relationships with Mussolini and Hitler way back when, and on the other side the many instances of brutality and assaults on democracy that are part of the militarism from whence the PRD arose.)

But I didn’t hear any candidate’s mother insulted, nor did I see any arguments in favor of putting an opponent in front of a firing squad, and I do remember such things as a part of Panamanian political discourse in years past.

Yes, I would have preferred a more intelligent debate on issues of importance to Panama and less mindless sloganeering, more light and less heat. But our campaign was reasonably civil.

Compare that with what’s going on in the United States, and, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, in Panama. The American campaign is downright vicious, just like the past several have been. It’s most vicious of all on the Internet, and especially so when religion is invoked. The online ugliness is coming almost exclusively from one side, the supporters of George W. Bush.

Ah, but neither the Bush campaign nor the Republican Party take credit. That’s because the sleaze is that bad.

A few issues back I took note of the unfounded attacks on John Kerry’s military record. These are mutating and proliferating, and now the Democrats are openly questioning Dubya’s military record in response.

The far right’s latest attack on the patriotism of those Americans who don’t think and vote like them uses a photo of US Marines praying and accuses the American Civil Liberties Union of trying to remove crosses from US military cemeteries. But the ACLU has never advocated any such thing. Like the endlessly recycled 1999 GOP lie about Hillary Clinton and the Black Panthers, you can read the truth of the matter in the Snopes urban legend files, but that doesn’t stop Bush supporters from repeating it.

See, the people who keep spreading the lies that John Kerry faked his Vietnam War injuries and that liberals want to stamp out religion in the US Armed Forces are fundamentalist Christians. They profess the belief that every word of the Bible is literally true and valid for all time.

Except for one thing. The Bush cult doesn’t believe in the Ninth Commandment --- you know, the one about not bearing false witness. They habitually campaign on lies, they led the country to war in Iraq based upon a lie and the truth is toxic to their cause.

And they make the worst of the recent Panamanian campaign look downright polite by comparison.

Also in this section:
Leis, From the democratic observatory
US Embassy, Congratulations for a clean election
Fisher, Now comes the hard part
Gutman, America's man in Baghdad
Weisbrot, Torture's another good reason to get out of Iraq
Silié, Importance of trade within the Caribbean region
Reporters Without Borders, Report on Panama
Jackson, If they think Panama's campaign was vicious...

opinion

If the Catholic bishops think that
Panama's campaign was hateful...

opinion

If the Catholic bishops think that Panama's campaign was hateful...

If the Catholic bishops think that
Panama's campaign was hateful...