I’m sure most of you have seen, or at least heard of, the controversial ad put forward to Ohio voters by gubernatorial hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy. Many of you have probably even read or heard arguments for and against such tactics. I’m not here to add to the debate. Today, I want to step away from partisan arguments and discuss what these moments say about our nation’s civic health.
Consider the specifics of what the ad both sought to do and what it did. Taken in the most charitable light, the ad took a private disagreement between a mother and a daughter and made it public to persuade voters that a candidate is untrustworthy. The campaign aired a family grievance on television to paint a daughter in a bad light. Even if that was all the ad did, it still reflects severe civic decay in America.
Those of us who call ourselves conservative should be particularly concerned with such things. We are, after all, those who claim to care about the health of the nuclear family. Yet Ramaswamy and his defenders seem to argue that occupying a governor’s mansion matters more than this particular family, rather than honorably determining, as one might think a conservative would, that exacerbating a family quarrel by using it as a political pawn is beneath the professed values and beliefs of those who view the family as the fundamental building block of society.
A collage of Amy Acton and Vivek Ramaswamy. (AP)
" data-large-file="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...06330977-e1792806716626.jpg?1793192192&w=1024" src="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...792806716626.jpg?1792792305&w=1024&1792792305" alt="Acton and Ramaswamy." class="wp-image-4778404" srcset="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...ge-5o480g87q-1792806330977-e1792806716626.jpg 1024w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...92806330977-e1792806716626.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...92806330977-e1792806716626.jpg?resize=768,512 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px">
A collage of Amy Acton and Vivek Ramaswamy. (AP)
But again, this is only looking at the matter from the most charitable light. The actual circumstances, what the ad actually did, are far worse. Amy Acton, after all, has been estranged from her biological mother since she was removed from her house by Ohio authorities after her stepfather was charged with raping her. And, crucially, the mother chose to stay with the man who abused her daughter rather than seek reconciliation with her daughter.
This campaign ad, then, is not simply an attack on the nuclear family, but an attack on the innocence of a child and the dignity of a woman who had suffered both sexual abuse and the difficulty of being raised in the system. The Ramaswamy campaign chose to present an estranged mother to the Ohio people as an argument against supporting her daughter for a political office, while obscuring the pain and victimization the daughter went through.
The details are gross. No political candidate who goes ahead with such an ad, and who doubles down on it when the full details emerge, has any shame. No political culture that defends such a candidate’s choices has any shame.
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But we are told we don’t have time for shame. Acton is a Democrat, we are reminded. But what are we actually saying if that’s the justification? That only Republican families are the building blocks of society? That only Republican children deserve to be raised in safe environments? That only Republican women deserve basic human dignity?
This is perhaps the worst part of this whole affair. We have become such rabid, hyperpartisan dogs that not only has everything become politicized, but all other concerns beyond political ones must be cast aside in the name of the scrap for more and more power. We have surrendered our erstwhile determination of “liberty and justice for all” and traded it for the empty virtue of the political tribe.
Justin Stapley (@JustinWStapley) is a graduate student at Utah Valley University, where he studies constitutional governance, civics, and law. He is also the state director of the Utah Reagan Caucus and writes the Self-Evident Newsletter.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
