One of my biggest pet peeves, and why I became the Las Vegas Conservative Examiner, is hypocrisy. I absolutely cannot stand a lack of integrity in candidates and politicians. As a discerning voter, I want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly about a candidate before I vote. It’s an interesting philosophy I learned in graduate school.
I attended my master’s program in Counseling Psychology, with a specialization in Transpersonal Psychology, in Northern California – the land of peaceniks and libtards. The fact that I was one at the time is not wholly relevant to this story (but notice how I owned it anyway). As budding psychotherapists we were taught to be aware of cultural differences, because we may have clients from many cultural backgrounds. One of the challenges we were given was to be honest with ourselves about any and all prejudice we may experience. It was explained to us that everyone experiences some level of prejudice, and to own it, in order to work on it, not to deny it and pretend it doesn’t exist. For a liberally based graduate program, that was mighty mature of them to teach us, and demonstrated a high level of integrity.
Well, in my capacity as a journalist reporting pertinent information to the conservative community about candidates and issues, I felt it was very important to know where the mayoral candidates stand on the issue of immigration. After all; every single one of them, that I’ve heard speak, talks to us about job creation. Granted, some speak about job creation through education, or through movie studios, green energy, decreased taxes, and increased incentives… blah, blah, blah. None address the fact that many Las Vegas jobs have been hijacked by illegal immigrants - sponsored by the unions, and supported by the tourism industry (hotels, casinos, and restaurants). So it was with a sense of purpose that I wrote my op-ed about what the four candidates I’ve been blessed to interview said to me on the subject.
As I always do after writing an article and posting it on examiner.com, I added the link to my Facebook page and the pages belonging to each of the candidates mentioned. Imagine my surprise when I checked back today on each of their fb pages, to find that George Harris (or a representative of his campaign) deleted the article because it painted Mr. Harris in a less than favorable light regarding illegal immigration.
Now, I understand his fb page is his, and he is certainly entitled to have posted whatever he wants. But I find it odd that he deleted the link about the immigration story but kept the link to his profile article. To me, that indicates a desire to hide a fact that has the potential to dissuade voters from voting for him. It has now become an integrity issue to me. If he spoke openly with me, but didn’t like that I shared what he said, that indicates he doesn’t want to be open with potential voters. And if he is willing to hide something as pertinent as his stance on illegal immigration when running for mayor of a major city, what else is he willing to hide? Will he be a transparent mayor, if he’s not willing to be a transparent candidate…?
Early voting started yesterday, March 19th, and I urged voters in an article not to early vote just for such a reason – there is not enough known about each candidate at this juncture. I have forgone early voting in this election because I am not done attempting to interview mayoral candidates, and will not make a final decision on whom to vote for until I have. To do so otherwise would be unfair and pretentious. I cannot vote for a candidate early and then pretend to be unbiased with others I interview; so I will wait until I’ve spoken with as many as possible. I urge all voters to do the same. To vote for a candidate on personality or Party affiliation only, is an irresponsible reason to vote, in my opinion. If we look at the most recent presidential election, we can see what happens when people vote uninformed based on Party affiliation or personality.
Before you vote, determine where integrity lies in your candidate’s political tool box.
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