Silence of moderate Republicans = Consent

by David Safier

For once I don't mind a headline rewrite in The Star. The paper titled Krugman's column, "Moderate GOP leaders silent as partisans overstep." The original head was

It’s Witch-Hunt Season

Krugman's topic is the unhinged right and its attack machine which goes after Democrats with blatant disregard for real, provable facts. The name of the game is lie, slander and defame. Say it often enough and it takes on the aura of truth.

In the middle of the column, Krugman asks:

And where, in all of this, are the responsible Republicans, leaders who will stand up and say that some partisans are going too far? Nowhere to be found.

"Nowhere to be found," indeed. In Arizona, only one moderate Republican, Jim Kolbe, has made a public effort to say a Democratic candidate, Andrei Cherny, is the better choice. No other moderate Rs I know of have even taken the half way step of saying they won't vote for a certain Republican.

Silence isn't simply silence. Silence is consent. By saying nothing, they're endorsing the extremists.

I once read about a study indicating how silence can be the same as consent. Its intent was to measure adults' influence in stopping or promoting children's misbehavior.

A young child was put in a room with toys and an adult. In one situation, the adult told the child when s/he  did something that was unacceptable — throwing toys, breaking toys, etc. In the other situation, the adult sat passively, not reacting no matter what the child did.

The children with the passive adult were far more likely to cross the line into unacceptable behavior. In fact, the children with the passive adult actually went farther into the unacceptable area than a third group of children who were put in the room without an adult present.

This makes sense to me. If a child throws a toy and an adult says, "Don't throw toys," the child understands the boundaries. But if a child throws a toy and the adult ignores the action, the child concludes that behavior is acceptable. S/he continues the behavior and often takes it one step further. In a real sense, the adult gave consent by doing nothing.

This is what moderate Republican leaders are doing when they remain silent. They're telling voters who have similar political leanings — moderate Republicans and some Independents — "It's OK with me if you vote for anyone with an "R" in front of their name, like Jan Brewer, Al Melvin and Russell Pearce."

Silence = Consent.

NOTE: I could say the same thing about Democrats whose silence and passivity in the face of Republican craziness makes it look less crazy. And I often do. I'm pleased to see the AZ Dem Party and some candidates speaking up loudly right now. I hope it's not too little, too late. They should have voiced their outrage a long time ago.