Opinion: Letter
Setting the record straight
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Also by Adam Porton:
- County needing third party voice (October 28, 2008)
- Setting the record straight (October 21, 2008)
- Immigration an issue of decency (October 14, 2008)
- Progressive Dane proving self through real activism (September 16, 2008)
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This letter is in response to Jason Smathers’ recent opinion piece “Progressive Dane must tone down fighting words.” (BH 10/16) As a member of Progressive Dane, I’d like to address his inaccurate characterization of both the issues we work on and the group itself.
First of all, Smathers attacks PD for opposing Sheriff Dave Mahoney’s policy of reporting the names of detained undocumented persons to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. He claims that PD wants the Sheriff to do some “legislation from the badge” and break the law by not reporting these names. As someone who heard Mahoney defend his actions at last week’s Dane County Equal Opportunities Commission meeting, I can definitively say that it is Mahoney who is legislating from the badge by continuing with his current policy. Mahoney admitted that what he does is not required by ICE, and that in fact he often refuses actual ICE cooperation requests. He then justified his reporting practices by saying that he needs to positively ID everyone in his jail and must notify foreign consulates when one of their citizens is arrested. However, upon asking follow up questions, it became clear to an increasingly frustrated EOC that reporting names to ICE is rarely, if ever, needed to accomplish those two goals.
The question — why then, Sheriff Mahoney, do you continue this practice? — was never answered. What was made clear was the extremely detrimental effect this practice has had on Dane County’s immigrant community. This community, made up of both documented and undocumented individuals, is now so distrustful of law enforcement that it, as county residents and social service workers attested to at the hearing, increasingly fails to report actual crimes. In this light, for Smathers to say that raising awareness of the Sheriff’s policy “inflames passions with absolutely no results” ironically only serves to suggest that more groups like PD are needed to pressure the Sheriff.
More pertinently though, I take serious issue with Smathers’ assertion there is a problem with the tone of PD’s debate. Specifically, Smathers claims to love the idea of a third party shaking up Madison’s local political scene, but says he is dismayed by the “antagonistic rhetoric” PD brings to the table. He cites a recent PD column where the author criticized a non-PD alder for voting a certain way on a piece of homeless legislation. According to Smathers, this was a cheap shot because it didn’t take into account other aspects of the alder’s record.
Whether intentional or not, Smathers has employed a classic argument often used to unfairly discredit third parties. This argument, because it highlights a supposed problem with political style, serves to distract from the main issue at hand, namely the legitimate differences between Progressive Dane and mainstream Democratic policies. Unfortunately, such a tactic often works well because it provides a cursory acknowledgment of these differences, but then immediately moves away from them, focusing instead on undermining the third party for its lack of civility or fairness. In this case, our PD homeless article was never about examining the legacy of a particular alder’s voting record. It was about raising public awareness of a recent piece of legislation, and in turn, letting the readership of this paper know how their representative voted. The objections Smathers have to it then seem irrelevant at best, therefore begging the question: If the same article had been written by a Democrat and had chastised a Republican, would he have been able to write the same response? I think not.
All political parties constantly seek to highlight where they and their opposition disagree, and PD is no exception. As such we will continue to provide a much-needed check on the often unquestioned liberal supremacy over city and county debates. In turn, I challenge those who disagree with PD to engage with us on the issues, instead of distracting from them with irrelevant attacks on PD’s rhetoric.
Adam Porton
Student Progressive Dane
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It’s not [the offensive and divisive rhetoric you employ] irrelevent when you’re a political party that plays the role of bullies on campus.
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Right on, Adam. Right on.
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Liberals can be and certainly are bullies. Good gosh, they act just like Republicans!
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“Liberals can be and certainly are bullies. Good gosh, they act just like Republicans!”
And Democrats. I am a middle-of-the-road person which most people will take to mean that I just can’t make up my mind, but the reality of it is that I just can’t stand most people on both sides of the fence. I don’t think we need a third party like PD which is even further to the left than the Dems. What we need is a party that really thinks like the people of this country think, not just how the college campuses think. Its the outspoken minorities that cause the majority of problems. Where are the outspoken fence sitters?
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Bullying?? Our democracy was never intended to be one composed of a polity that passively accepts the decisions of elected officials by virtue of them holding office. An accountable government requires one that feels a continuous pressure from various segments of the polity during their time in office. If you’d like to sit back and consider being an active citizen voting once every couple years, don’t complain about politics dominated by gimmicky deceitful advertisements that yield no results, and I would hesitate before throwing out the insult “bully”.
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why is PD alder Robbie Weber trying to have the Satdium bar’s outdoor patio shut down? Why doesn’t she like outdoor patios near camp randal?
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8:42am, that is precisely why I’m voting third party. Democrats and Republicans both suck. And so does the liberal news media for excluding third party candidates from the debates.
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11:39am, you are the perfect example of bullying.