Being responsible for supporters

I recall several years ago when I formed an organization known as OLL -- Oregonians to Limit Lawyers. It was a small organization, consisting of precisely myself and my mimeograph machine. OK, it wasn't technically a mimeograph, but the I like to recall it that way as a more colorful story. As an organization, however, it was definitely just me.

Our platform, using "our" in the imperial form now, was that there were already too many lawyers in Oregon and the private law schools at Willamette and Lewis & Clark were sufficient. The University of Oregon should close its. I sent out a memo to all the candidates for the state legislature, asking for their position. It was a campaign year and indeed, a few responded. Most ignored me.

I actually got a little publicity out of it and people sent me letters. One guy even sent a check, which helped cover my printing and mailing costs. Unfortunately, they seemed generally to be nut cases. I felt then, and feel now, that we have too many lawyers and the state should get out of the business of producing more of what taxpayers want less of. But it became clear that this position attracted an undesirable number of wackos, so I dropped the campaign.

I remember this situation as I watch the current presidential campaign unfold, with candidates now busily trying to explain their relationships with clergymen whose views on public matters make my anti-lawyer adherents look statesmanlike.

This is sad. Ideas should not be regarded as responsible for their supporters. No one (except perhaps some talk show host somewhere) has ever suggested that Barack Obama planned to take advise from Jeremiah Wright should he be elected, or that McCain shares Hagee's views on Hitler. As a practical matter, their support should not matter to the voter.

It's actually a bit more disturbing that although McCain now condemns Hagee's theoretical views, he hasn't moved an inch from the mindless pro-Israeli policies that Hagee's theology led him to. Obama is at least separate from Wright as regards practical impact. McCain seems like a nice guy, but when you consider that he thinks not only the Iraq War but, in retrospect, the Vietnam War as well have been good ideas, it worries me.