On Point: Take a flier . . .

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Election tip of the day: As grating as those political ads on TV may be, their content often contains a kernel of truth. Which is more than can be said for many of the fliers going out to voters this year.

The group Main Street Colorado, for example, has sent out two different pieces of campaign literature claiming Republican House candidate Affie Ellis in Jefferson County opposes a new state law making it a felony "to sexually exploit or lure a child over the Internet."

Ellis does not oppose such a law. "I've never said that," she told me.

Of course she didn't. Who would? The bill passed 34-0 in the Senate and 60-1 in the House, with the lone dissenter being a Democrat.

So how does Main Street justify its sleazy falsehood? Its spokeswoman confirmed what Ellis suspected. In her campaign literature, Ellis says she would "hold the line on taxes by ensuring the legislature keeps its promise to the taxpayer to use Referendum C dollars on existing programs and not create new programs."

To the clever boys and girls at Main Street, this pledge to resist new government programs justifies the claim that Ellis opposes locking up sexual predators. This is cynicism on stilts, but by no means the worst such stunt from Main Street this year (see my column of Oct. 20).

"How do they look at themselves in the mirror?" Ellis asks about the political operatives responsible for the fliers.

How? Probably with considerable pride. If your business is character assassination, why would you be ashamed of success?

. . . and throw it in the trash

Main Street may be taking novel liberties with truth, but it's hardly alone. To cite another recent example, a group called Progress Colorado has authored a flier claiming that a Democrat running for the state Senate in Jefferson County "declined to answer" questions regarding illegal immigration on the Rocky Mountain News questionnaire.

But Paula Noonan didn't tiptoe carefully around the issue, as the flier implies. The questionnaire covers many topics, and she didn't fill it out at all; nor was she unique among candidates in that regard.

The lesson for voters is unmistakable: If you get a flier from an independent group, ignore it. Even if its message is not literally a lie, chances are it might as well be.

'Shared' responsibility indeed

The 700-mile border wall approved in legislation signed by President Bush last week is "an example of the inability of the United States to see the issue of immigration as one of shared responsibility," according to Mexican President Vicente Fox.

The "shared responsibility" Fox refers to, of course, amounts to the following: Mexico generates a surplus of workers and the United States provides these workers with jobs.

Ah, but why can't Mexico create enough jobs on its own? Why has its economic growth over the past dozen years been so anemic - not only compared with booming developing countries such as China but even with a number of Latin American nations?

"Economic deficiencies still abound in Mexico," explained Berkeley economist Brad DeLong in a recent blog item. "According to the OECD, these include a very low average number of years of schooling, with young workers having almost no more formal education than their older counterparts; little on-the-job training; heavy bureaucratic burdens on firms; corrupt judges and police; high crime rates; and a large, low-productivity informal sector that narrows the tax base and raises tax rates on the rest of the economy. . . . The demographic burden of a rapidly growing labor force appears to be greatly increased when that labor force is not very literate, especially when inadequate infrastructure, crime, and official corruption also take their toll."

Speaking of Mexican crime and corruption, they're probably worse than most Americans even suspect, according to Austin-based Stratfor, a risk analysis company.

"From our perspective," says Stratfor Vice President Fred Burton, "the sheer amount of violence and corruption is probably underreported, because we are not getting accurate and open press out of Mexico about what is actually taking place."

So the beat goes on, along with the inevitable demands for "shared responsibility."

Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes On Point several times a week. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.