In the recent issue of the SA propaganda magazine known as Visions, Vice President Joshua Korman launched into an inappropriate, uncalled for, vicious attack on political science and "related majors." He lumps all such students together as "career politicians" as though this were a bad thing. On the very same page we are treated to a picture of a smiling Korman posing with President Clinton, an admitted career politician. Well, you just cannot have it both ways. Either it is a bad thing to be a career politician or one should not be posing with one - especially not with a smile on your face.
Further, Korman comments on the recent SA elections by spewing forth a vicious personal attack on one of the candidates. It is correct to say that this candidate and his running mates were found guilty by the Elections and Credentials Board's definition of libel, but if these elections overseers had bothered to check a dictionary - Black's Law Dictionary, in particular - they would have discovered that what they were in fact defining was a simple false or mis-statement of the facts. Libel must be defamatory. That is, it must be a willful misstatement of fact intended to injure the good name of another. Making statements about an opponent's record in a political campaign - and that is what it was - is not considered defamatory. The definition used by the elections authorities would mean that an individual walking up to someone wearing a red shirt and saying it was blue was guilty of defamation. On its face this is absurd.
The term "smear" is also used in the attack. Since when is it a smear tactic to point out what you see as deficiencies of the incumbent. This is politics. This is the free and open discussion of viewpoints and opinions. No one was called a child molester. No one was alleged to have tortured puppies. Those are smear tactics. Those are nasty statements.
I know what it is like to have your opponents tell lies about you. I know what smear tactics feel like. Perhaps the winners who are still whining should get over it and let it go - they won. Certainly, political science students and others from "related majors" are well aware of the old political adage: "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."
