Very icky, weird neighborhood politics situation. Advice, please!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I never in a billion years thought that I would come down on the side of a racist, fundamentalist anti-gay bigot. This whole thing has me profoundly uncomfortable, and I would like some advice on it, if you don’t mind.

A neighbor called to me from across the street when I pulled into the driveway this afternoon. He wanted to forward me a bunch of material that had been found online, authored by our elected neighborhood president. Now, because our neighborhood is an historic district, this is actually a city-level leadership position. We had our most recent election for this position in October.

I just read the email forward. Everything about it is ugly. Very ugly. Apparently, our neighborhood president, whom I’ve met (seemed nice. A bit douchey, but inoffensive), is a raging anti-gay fundamentalist Christian who posts his more unexpurgated opinions on a right-wing message board. I have no idea how this happened, but one of our neighbors has been busy tracking his online postings.

I find his views absolutely abhorrent. He’s a gun freak, pro-God, anti-gay, racist fuck. He considers this neighborhood the bastion of mostly white neighborhoods in the city. He’s terribly concerned that there might be a “coven” in the neighborhood, and he’s convinced that his wife’s health problems could be a curse laid on her, yadda yadda yadda. He’s belligerent, writing in one of the pre-election postings that he was on the verge of physically attacking his opponent during a debate.

Sounds like someone no one could possibly support, right?

Hold on a sec. The email, which is making the rounds AFTER the election, mind, contains a personal message of support from his opponent, as well as the stated intention of forwarding the contents of the postings to the mayor and city council. This is all specifically aimed at getting him thrown out of office, before the next election.

The whole thing REEKS of political chicanery and underhandedness. OK, so the guy’s crazy. We’ve all written crazy shit online, especially when stressed out or angry about something. For all I know, he’s 100% letting off steam to people who are like-minded. Shouldn’t people have the right to do that?

So has he done anything criminal? Not to my knowledge. The email also expresses concern about his “mental stability”, promoting his removal based on the concern that he might be potentially violent.

Has he ever attacked anyone? Again, not to my knowledge.

He was elected with 60% of the admittedly old, white, conservative vote. I say drop this dishonest bullshit and take your medicine. Spread your message without mud-slinging and dirty politics. Come back in two years and win the next election. Kick this bozo to the curb the RIGHT way.

All this other shit is just evil and dishonest.

That’s where I’m at with this. Am I wrong?

2

Nope, you’re right.

3

I’m with you. He hasn’t done anything illegal, and he was duly elected to the office. His personal opinions, even if expressed somewhat publicly, shouldn’t have any bearing on whether he holds the office, unless he brings them into it by actively pursuing policies that reflect them. Even then, the best way to express dissatisfaction with his ideas is at the polls. You don’t want him in office, vote him out at the next election.

4

Wow, that’s an ugly OP. I wrote it hastily. Please pardon the typos and poor logical flow.

I’ve written out a reply to everyone on the mailing list that says, in entirety:

“It sounds like everyone involved has an axe to grind, and I don’t trust this message. I find his personal views abhorrent, but this approach is dishonest. Unless there’s a substantive reason to remove him (criminal activity, etc.), you should vote him out in the next election. I certainly will not be voting for him, but you do not have my support in this rather underhanded campaign.”

But I haven’t sent it yet.

5

Well, aside from objecting that the fact that he’s a “gun freak” doesn’t at all reflect negatively on his character (unless by that you mean he has sex with firearms or something along those lines…) I would agree with you that his other qualities should be plenty enough to give him a sound thrashing in the next election, provided of course that these claims are true in the first place. (Which raises the question: how sure are you that these online postings are actually his?)

What sort of procedures do you have in place for removing your neighborhood president from office? Are there established criteria for what merits such removal? I would agree that if all he has done is earn the distaste of his constituents with his douchebaggery, then the appropriate place to remove him is at the polls, but it might be a good idea to study your charter or other applicable documents to see if they back you up.

Either way, I agree with your position and I think you’d be doing the right thing to make your objections known.

6

Oh, it’s not the guns themselves. I have several myself. It’s the tone of his posts having to do with guns. They have a very strong right-wing militia “cold, dead hands”, etc. flavor to them. He as much as says that he keeps large caliber weapons at hand to keep the thugs (“most of whom are black”) at bay. Rolleyes could never do justice to the notion.

And yeah, I’m pretty sure the posts are indeed by him. His username contains part of his real name, and his avatar consists of two guitars that I’ve seen him carrying, when I’ve run into him at local music shops.

I’ll definitely have to check the by-laws.

7

If I may ask, what is it about the material that your neighbor provided that has caused you to believe that it was actually penned by the neighbor hood president? What is so compelling that you immediately overrode your own experience and evaluation of the guy? My first suspicion would be that the stuff is a plant.

Too slow posting.

8

See above. His avatar, mostly, since the guitars in question are quite unusual.

9

If the information was gleaned through legal means such as the candidate put it on a website and the public came across it, than I think the information is fair game in the next election. I think it’s pretty lame and unlikely to work that they are trying to get him out before the next election.

10

Unfortunately, he sounds like 50% of Americans. That seems like a rather steep hill to climb if you want to start getting rid of them all.

11

First of all, if he’s lugging around 2 guitars, he’s probably left his automatic weapons at home. So, that would be the best time to attack him. :stuck_out_tongue:

Seriously, if you’re convinced all this is genuine, you need to start attending whatever public meetings that this guy has an official role in. You might see flashes of that attitude, you might see evidence that he is (or isn’t) reflecting those attitudes in his voting or decision making.

What kind of decisions dooes he make? Is he in charge of enforcing some kind of neighborhood covenents? Does he have the power to make thingss happen? Or stop them from happening? For instance, zoning variations, or small business licenses?

If you find out he is doing something like denying all applications (for whatever) for blacks or other minorities, but allowing the same manner of applications from whites, you might feel that waiting until the next election is not sufficient.

What you’ve noted so far is not, IMO, sufficient to sign a recall petition. But it’s certainly enough to start some kind of “neighborhood watch” thing to scrutinze what he does very very carefully.

12

The answer to all this is…I’m not sure. I have been remiss in my duties to learn how the neighborhood representative position works. I definitely need to get hold of the bylaws.

13

If you’re positive it was by him, then it should be circulated to everyone who could have an interest. Nobody with views like that is worthy of holding elected office.

14

So you think that he should be removed from office based on nothing but his views, provided, of course, that he has not contravened the bylaws (or real laws, for that matter) in any way?

15

If his views aren’t keeping him from doing a good job, why should he be removed?

There’s a local politician here whom I once heard described in these terms: “when she remembers what party she’s from, she’s a horror; when she remembers where she’s from, she’s just great.” It’s perfectly possible, as has been proved time and again, for someone to put “what the majority of people want” or “the law” above “what I want.”

16

I agree 100%. Of course a person’s views - especially hateful extremest viewpoints - are relevant to a person’s ability to serve in an elected position. An elected official has certain powers which they can abuse in furtherance of their beliefs. For example, him saying that he believes there is a “coven” in the neighborhood shows that he is intolerant of people of non-Christian religions living in the neighborhood. What if a Muslim family moves in? Will he discriminate against them in his official capacity? What about a homosexual family? A black or Latino or Asian family? A mixed-race family? What if you are a Democrat and you post campaign signs in your yard or have a bumper sticker supporting your candidate? Will you become a target for discrimination?

Of COURSE his extremist beliefs are relevant!! Of course his constituency has a right to know what kind of hateful ideas this guy is espousing in a public forum.

17

But as far as I know, he has never misused his power.

18

What if someone was overheard making hate speech (racist, bigoted, anti gay, whatever) in a private forum? They may not have abused their power, but making the speech can be considered an action, just as writing those things down was also an action.

19

And this is, of course, the rub. For purposes of public office, the relevant question is what he does, not what he believes. Even then, if he exercises his political power appropriately but in a way that merely reflects his views – if, for example, he votes in favor of a “concealed carry” ordinance because he’s pro-gun – his constituents still don’t have anything to complain about. If they elected him without knowing his views, whose fault is that? I think it’s a very deep pool we’re stepping in when we try to decide who is “worthy to hold public office” in the sense not merely of not voting for them (not electing them) but affirmatively trying to kick them out.

If he commits misfeasance or malfeasance while in office, then there may be grounds to attempt to eject him or recall him (depending on the local legal standards for ejection/recall). BUT there must be an actual abuse of power, not merely the fear that he could attempt one due to his beliefs. So the question becomes: Is posting distasteful racist homophobic dreck in a public forum misfeasance or malfeasance? Without knowing the details of his position or your location, I can tell you the answer is generally “probably not” – that pesky First Amendment right to free speech gets in the way again.

So to me the relevant inquiry is not whether it’s dishonest to try to oust him, and I don’t see why it would be, but whether that attempt is (1) the proper use of recall process and/or (2) likely to be successful. IMO, the answer to the first is “no” and the answer to the second is also “no.” Those are reasons enough to decline to be involved in this particular attempt. But I don’t think you have to get up on your high horse about it in order to give the effort a pass, and I don’t see why you would want to alienate your neighbors who think this is the right thing to do. It’s not like you support the guy anyway.

Sounds like an excellent opportunity to sit quietly and wait on events, IMO.

20

But you said upthread that you weren’t really sure the scope of his office and what his responsibilities are. I think it’s reasonable based on his comments to investigate his actions in officer.