9/19/2008 5:11:00 PM U.S. Election / Ugly parallels with Bermuda The campaign lies remind me of something... ... Ah yes, the spin and distortion that marred the Bermuda election campaign last year
Tom Vesey Sun columnist
One of the scariest things about the U.S. elections is that it reflects a little bit of ourselves.
I've been quietly fuming at the blatant lies and calculated fear-mongering that have become an integral part of this year's American presidential campaign.
But then obvious truth gradually dawned on me: Isn't this the kind of what we went through in our last Bermuda election.
I'm experiencing the same horrible feeling I felt in the last Bermuda election, that maybe it works. Even worse, maybe nobody cares.
I waited through the last Bermuda election for some kind of public outrage to emerge at some of the falsehoods - the claims, for example, that the UBP supported hanging and flogging, that it wanted to drag the people of Bermuda back to slavery, and that it would give citizenship to thousands upon thousands of foreigners.
I waited, even, for some half-hearted repudiation from PLP leaders that this, really, wasn't what we meant to say.
But it never came.
In fact, it was repeated and exaggerated in the party's campaign advertising.
So it seems a little familiar when John McCain's campaign tries to scare voters with falsehoods about Barack Obama - that he plans to increase taxes for working people, for example, or that he wants to legislate sex education for kindergarten students.
McCain and his campaign are entirely unrepentant, and endlessly repeat the claims that even they acknowledge are inaccurate - such as Sarah Pain's claim that she rejected federal money for Alaska's famous "bridge to nowhere", or that she sold the state jet on eBay.
Voters aren't stupid, you sometimes hear people say, both in the States and in Bermuda.
But politicians wouldn't be lying like this, they wouldn't be deliberately trying to create suspicion and division, unless they were convinced that it really would help them win.
And it's easy to see how this becomes true.
The noise and vitriol wins some people over. And instead of becoming offended and creating a backlash the rest of the people put blinkers on and pretend it isn't happening. It's the only way they can protect their own sanity.
Most people probably make their choice for leader with little reference to the angry lies and protests that fill the campaigns.
And they probably don't pay more than cursory attention to the policies, plans and programmes that the candidates promise to carry out.
Candidates have a hard time articulating these things in an angry campaign climate. And voters have a hard time knowing what promises to believe at election time too.
In the end, I think, most people in Bermuda and the United States alike end up voting for some kind of vague image - for the person or party who, while maybe far from perfect, makes them feel slightly more comfortable than the alternative.
And then they trust them to make the appropriate decisions when it comes to implementing programmes and handling crises.
Larry Burchall made some good observations in his Bermuda Sun column last week, when he said Americans voters are really choosing a monarch - the modern American equivalent of mad King George III or today's Queen Elizabeth II.
I'd never thought of it that way before. But the notion not only explains American election hoopla, as Mr. Burchall pointed out, but maybe even how voters make choices which otherwise can seem quite strange.
And not just in the U.S, but in Bermuda as well.
It could be that a lot of voters are simply choosing the candidate who best matches their unspoken sense of what the symbolic head of their nation ought to look and sound like - and not on policies or programmes or promises at all.
That could explain part of the appeal of the Republican McCain - who fits the stereotype of a U.S. head of state far closer than his rival.
And in Bermuda, it could explain an almost insurmountable appeal of Jennifer Smith and Ewart Brown over Grant Gibbons and Michael Dunkley.
In Bermuda and the U.S., perhaps, policies and programmes aren't that important, and lies won't hurt you whether they're aimed at you or you are dishing them out.
Posted: Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Comment by:
9PS
Loki,
She has probably responded, but the moderator more than likely had to disallow the post from being posted.
EDITOR'S NOTE: She hasn't posted anything.
Posted: Monday, September 29, 2008
Comment by:
loki
Laverne, do you have any comments to make?
Posted: Monday, September 29, 2008
Comment by:
9PS
Ms. Furbert,
You are a joke. That video was posted just after you claimed that confused negro was a term you "never used." The video is of yo at a PLP rally clearly stating that Mr. Crockwell is a "confused negro" for being a member of the UBP. Your constant lies reveals much about your personality. Your childish attacks against people who call you , constantly I might add, shows your inability to construct or debate on a any level of intelligence.
Spin your life away Ms. Furbert. In the end people of this island know the truth of the matter. They also are beginning to know and realize you are completely unable to incorporate even an ounce of truth into any of your rants. Your attempts of spin above are equal to the rest of your so called "debates", pathetic.
Well maybe you will accept this link as holding some truth as to the outlandish statements that the PLP made during teh election. I mean it is from the PLP website itself. But hold on let me guess some evil UBP partisan hacked into the site and posted it with Minister Burgess' face on it. That evil evil Bill Zuill man. He must be behind this all.
http://www.plp.bm/node/1164
I am 26 years old Ms. Furbert, but it seems I still have years on you in terms of political and general maturity.
Posted: Monday, September 29, 2008
Comment by:
loki
Laverne, you are a liar, and a bad one at that: I have a copy of the video in question, and you can clearly be heard rhetorically referring to Shawn Crockwell as "a confused negro".
Posted: Sunday, September 28, 2008
Comment by:
drew
Laverne,
Your incessant spin and lies get old very quickly. You did refer to Shawn Crockwell as a confused-negro in that speech and it’s a shame you cannot man-up and stand behind your convictions. I will post a short excerpt from your speech and you can decide for yourself if that’s what you said or not (please note: you had not got to the prepared part of your speech yet so showing us the speech you had prepared will not show these spoken words)...
“I don’t know how many of you heard HOTT 107 this morning and heard Shawn, the interview with Shawn Crockwell. Now one of the amazing things Shawn Crockwell said, and we have to remember that, um, well were talking about integrity right...but one of the amazing things Shawn Crockwell said that the UBP for 30 years had to fight the oligarchy. That’s what he said! Shawn Crockwell said the UBP had to fight the oligarchy! The UBP had to fight to get free education. And Sir Henry Tucker was a friend of black people in this country! NOW TELL ME THAT IS NOT A CONFUSED NEGRO....BECAUSE IT IS.”
Your words not mine. The speech can be found here: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=uEz5dlfZOAs .
Ciao
Posted: Sunday, September 28, 2008
Comment by:
Robert Bryce
Ms Furbert appears to take the view that only something published in a letter to the RG (ironically the paper she and many of her party despise and wish to destroy) is fact. Does she deny these comments made by Lovitta Foggo at a rally in St Davids's on December 10 2007 were not made "We must hasten to employ measures which ensure that our people and our children know that a UBP vote is a vote back to the plantation. It is a vote that will return the shackles to our feet!"?
Does she deny the existence of the video broadcast on TV on the eve of the election clearly showing someone looking and sounding like Dr Ewart Brown say "the UBP wants to grant status to 8,000 yes 8,000 people"? (Later to be reduced to about 1,900 by then Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess).
Unbelievable, but to be expected.
Posted: Saturday, September 27, 2008
Comment by:
LaVerne Furbert
Loki, how can a video "show" me saying something. Were you able to read my lips? Although I do believe that Shawn Crockwell is a confused negro, and I referred to him during the speech that you mention, I did not call him a confused negro at that event. In fact, the sound on the video on you tube is so garbled that it is very difficult to decifer anything that I said. By the way, I spoke from prepared remarks which I still have. But, even if I showed them to you, you would say that I edited them.
Also, 9ps, unless you can produce a letter to the editor in the Royal Gazette, don't show me any quotes. What you are showing me is a reporter's interpretation of what was said.
By the way 9ps, how old are you - 12?
Posted: Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Comment by:
9ps
Ms. Furbert,
I apologize for not including the below link in my previous postingregarding the PLP's claims that the UBP were going to grant numerous individuals citizenship in OUR island. Funny enoughit comes straight from the PLP website itself.
http://www.plp.bm/node/1164
Your silence is deafening as usual. Again another lie in which you have been caught. Have a great day!
Posted: Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Comment by:
which way
the question is, which she pull a mccain (as the article may suggest), and try to somehow weasel out of being caught lying/flip flopping/etc, or will she she not respond at all? We all know she will not admit those that have caught her are right.
Posted: Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Comment by:
loki
For my own part, I find it difficult to take Ms. Furbert's attack on Tom Vesey terribly seriously: after all, this is someone who is on the record as having denied that she ever referred to black UBP candidates as 'confused negroes', which is directly contradicted by an official PLP video posted on youtube.com, which clearly shows her doing precisely that at a 2007 PLP rally held in the run-up to the last election.
