For the past decade in municipal elections, Orem has experienced repeated cycles of very negative campaigning. It wasn’t this way when I moved to Orem, and I’m hopeful that with a collective effort we can reclaim the civic culture that was once a hallmark of our community.
Recent campaigns for local elections have followed the national trend of using political attacks to try to shape the outcome of elections. These attacks accelerate in October just before ballots get mailed out for the general election. They are used as part of a coordinated campaign strategy to influence voters, using false information and negative inferences to gain political advantage by triggering emotions of fear and doubt.
Unfortunately, Orem residents experience some of the most negative and misleading local campaigns in the entire state of Utah.
While we should always welcome constructive debate over any issue relevant to the community, negative campaigning is not designed to discover truth or make our policies better. Instead, it is used to gain political advantage, and follows a predictable playbook using one or more of the following tactics:
- Cite “facts” that seem plausible but are untrue.
- Take things out of context by omitting timelines, people, or places that are relevant to interpreting an event.
- Falsely infer negative motivations instead of seeking to understand true motives.
- Omit sharing available contradictory evidence or the perspective of those targeted.
- Scattershot as many attacks as possible to see what might stick.
- Frame the attack as a defense of common people against self-serving elites.
- Tie the attack to national partisan issues that are irrelevant to local decisions.
- Repeat, repeat, repeat, until it sounds like it must be true.
I have been involved with Orem City for many years and I have seen this pattern of negative attacks on great people and institutions in the course of city council meetings, city work sessions, in neighborhood meetings, in the debate over our school district, in newspaper editorials, and of course, in online forums.
Negative attacks are different from constructive disagreements because they are not interested in getting to the truth or in finding common ground. They create division, erode interpersonal trust, and make it harder for a community to work together.
They harm our democracy by creating an environment where few talented individuals will contemplate public service in an elected office. I have heard from so many qualified individuals that they would never run for local office for fear of being smeared with personal attacks. Our current political culture narrows the pool of great leaders that we can draw on as a community.
As a candidate for elected office, I have been targeted with spurious attacks using the playbook described above, and I have seen many other excellent candidates and their supporters endure far worse. We all deserve better.
Here are some things that you can do:
- When you hear or read a political attack, ask yourself the following: Is this designed to trigger fear or doubt? Does it depend on assumptions and inferences instead of verifiable facts? Is it designed to create political advantage? Does it contradict common sense?
- Ask leaders, organizations, or candidates what they believe about any topic before believing representations about them, particularly if the presenter has some advantage to be gained by misrepresentation.
- Seek out information that presents all sides of any story and tries to present that information fairly by giving everyone a chance to share their perspective.
- Use positive and constructive language to share what matters to you, rather than turning first to criticism of others.
- Ask questions out of curiosity, speaking with respect and generosity, recognizing that you probably don’t have the full story.
I am running for Orem City Council because I am committed to reclaiming our traditional values of collaboration, truth-telling, and constructive dialogue. As a community, we deserve better than the political culture we live with today.
I want to live in a city with leaders who elevate others, celebrate all contributions, bring people together, and resolve disputes as peacemakers. I believe that is what the large majority of our residents want, and that together we can make this aspiration a reality.
If we don’t choose to renew our civic culture now, we will continue to see residents disengage with local issues out of distaste for the political process. We need everyone’s participation to make the critical decisions together that will shape our future.
Quinn Mecham is a candidate for Orem City Council.