Most of us feel besieged by a blizzard of appeals and threats that tell us how to vote. We can’t seem to escape them. These messages come through our phones, appear on our various screens, and show up in our mailboxes. So many of these campaign come-ons are carefully crafted to evoke two opposing responses: a stronger intention to vote for one candidate, and a more intense disdain, if not fear, of the candidate’s opponent. Behind the almost desperate appeal for votes is a frantic scramble for money which reflects the theory that the larger the “war chest” the greater likelihood that the candidate will be elected. And there is an enormous amount of money being raised, much of which comes from wealthy donors whose contributions support the expensive campaign machinery, yes, and at the same time are often seeking to buy influence.The entire enterprise can cause our heads to spin and our fists to clench.
And sometimes, as in the case of Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign ad featuring Dr. Amy Acton’s estranged mother calling her daughter a liar, it causes our stomachs to churn, if not to retch.The response to the ad has gone viral. People across the country – from commentators to politicians to voters, have said that the ad has crossed the line. I would submit that it has crossed several lines; and I think it is important to list them in sequence.
The crossing of lines begins with the violation of Dr. Acton’s personhood when she was raped by her stepfather at age 12. He escapes the indictment for the crime by moving out of its jurisdiction. Another line crossed. He is accompanied by Dr. Acton’s mother, an abandonment which crosses yet another line as Dr. Acton and her brother are removed from parental care. Some 48 years later, after virtually no contact between mother and daughter, Ramaswamy’s team searched out the mother and gets her to declare that her daughter is a liar and that people should not vote for her as Governor of Ohio. At this point we are not talking about lines but a web of cruelty, dishonesty, and a rapacious need for power. And the sordid and tragic story continues with Ramaswamy and other leaders doubling down by defending the ad and expressing “disgust” that people are whining about it.
A first response to this sequence of all these unbridled displays of power is to protect ourselves. They are ugly, and they are scary. That protection often includes the vilification of the vilifiers and their cruel displays of power. Calling them to account is important, but when it moves into unforgiving righteousness and the denigrating of someone else’s humanity, we end up stoking the furnace of raw and unbridled power to the degree that love, another form of power, gets lost. Combatting put downs with put downs not only allows the cycle of vindictiveness to continue, but adds fuel to the toxic climate of nastiness.
Sixty years ago, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a national effort that exposed raw, cruel, and unbridled power. Along with millions of others, King stood up to that power – with love. An extraordinarily gifted preacher, King had brilliant and transforming way of bringing power and love together:
“Power without love is reckless and abusive. Love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting anything that stands against love.”
The Ramaswamy ad reeks of power that is reckless and abusive. Its presence on various platforms, and the defensive defense of its presence, is devoid of love. The power of love that King refers to is anything but sentimental and anemic. Instead of raw power instilling division, the power of love invites solidarity. The power of love implementing the demands of justice can be transforming, and history has repeatedly shown us that it is abiding. We need to invest in that love in the wake of such despicable displays of aggression barely disguised as hate.
When Amy Acton and her brother were removed from the care of their mother, and after enduring even more hardship which included a stint of homelessness, she settled in with her biological father. Stability gradually was restored. No doubt love was involved as she worked through trauma, was inducted into the National Honor Society, was named homecoming queen, and paid her way through college. A community of support that was in sharp contrast to her earlier experience of abandonment and abuse.
We may feel some anticipatory relief that the campaign blizzard will soon end. The ads will go away and the pleas for funds will stop. But past experience has demonstrated that the desire for power and the aggression to retain power will not. We will need to fortify ourselves with yet another profound expression of wisdom from Martin Luther King: “Darkness cannot cast out darkness. Only light can do that. Hatred cannot cast out hate. Only love can do that”.
Let us gird ourselves with light and love.
