A fundamental principle of good governance is fact-based policy. The enemies of democracy know this and have undermined governance in western democracies through misinformation campaigns to erode the public’s confidence in government. Those misinformation campaigns, led by Russia and embraced by too many Americans is rightly called “Fake News”, though that moniker has been appropriated by those same “Fake News” sources to undermine confidence in legitimate news sources conveying actual facts.
This week, in light of yet another mass school shooting, “fake news” purveyors again took to Twitter and Facebook to spread divisiveness and disinformation, with claims that school shooting survivors are “crisis actors” and calls for students and teachers to carry concealed weapons in schools.
To have good government, we need our voting population to be trained to critically examine facts and weigh evidence before believing what they read. This skill is even more important in our federal representatives.
Unfortunately, our current Congressman, Claudia Tenney, has demonstrated yet again that she is out of touch with facts and is unable to weigh evidence necessary for good public policy. Her recent statement that “so many of these people that commit mass murders end up being Democrats, but … the media doesn’t want to talk about that” is another example. Set aside that the statement is false. This comment puts Tenney exactly in line with the divisiveness and disinformation of the Russian “Fake News” machine. The statement is beneath the office Tenney currently holds. More importantly, Tenney’s inability to tell fact from Troll propaganda is not an aberration.
However, Tenney’s statement ranks with the worst “Fake News” from Russia, because it promotes divisiveness and scurrolous innuendo for partisan gain at America’s expense. In subsequent comments, she didn’t apologize, but doubled down, saying she’s ““fed up with the media and liberals attempting to politicize tragedies”. This double down sounds much more like Tenney is leading the politicization of the atrocity than representing our District.
Tenney holds other views that are contrary to good governance and domestic tranquility, including questioning whether climate change is occurring and whether the government should act to mitigate it (Russian Troll memes) and her belief that the Republican tax cuts would pay for themselves. The evidence is overwhelmingly against those beliefs according to the experts in those fields, who traffic primarily in facts.
Bluntly, Tenney is getting her politics from Russian Trolls.
The problem isn’t just that she confirmed she said what she believes. Her statements are a reflection of her poor judgement, her belief that her strength lies in our divisions and degeneration and her willingness to believe things without the filter of critical thinking — like many of her official positions.
We need our member of the House of Representatives to work toward building policy consensus consistent with facts rather than reaching for low slander and acrimony.
Tenney has shown — yet again — she’s not that person. We need a Representative who has more in common with the people of Central New York than Russian Trolls.
Ralph Kohler,
Oneida, NY
This letter originally appeared in the Utica OD, Oneida Dispatch and the Syracuse Post-Standard on February 27, 2018.