It is a well-recognized fact in our American political system that bad behavior transcends party affiliation. At the recent Marietta Chamber of Commerce candidate luncheon, those in attendance were privy to some outlandish behavior even for the political arena. For those unfamiliar with the term, it has become the practice in recent years for both political parties to employ the services of campaign "trackers," political operatives whose sole purpose is to follow the opposition candidate and try to catch them on video doing or saying something foolish.
Recently this sort of opposition "research" has descended to all new lows as lawmakers have been assailed not only at their offices and at public events, but also at their homes. At the Chamber of Commerce event, the Democrat operative assigned to Republican Congressman Bill Johnson relentlessly followed his prey despite Johnson staffers' best efforts to place themselves between the hunter and the hunted.
In the end, the indefatigable tracker collected somewhat-less-than scandalous video of Johnson standing, sitting, talking, smiling, pointing, eating, gesturing and waving ... all of which was shot from a 12-24 inch distance from his subject and through the gesticulating arms and legs of the Congressman's campaign staff. Set to an appropriate musical score (Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" perhaps) the scene would have been funny if not so pathetic.
With this sort of thuggish campaign tactic as the accepted norm, it's no wonder we have a disproportionate number of demagogues and doofuses running for office. To his credit, Congressman Johnson handled what I would charitably term "harassment" with grace and dignity while, at the same time, demonstrating a practiced dance step. Still, a society willing to tolerate such methods, regardless of what party endorses them, is a society that gets the government they deserve ... and ask H. L. Mencken added, "they deserve to get it good and hard."
Kevin Ritter
Marietta
