Nobody should confuse Blackwell with a candidate of character.  He began his political career in the late seventies as a young mayor of Cincinnati who was a democrat.  Like Newt Gingrich, he saw where the political winds were shifting and he veered hard to the right.  We all know about what he did in Ohio in 2004 and there are least reasons to be suspicious he has done worse in 2005.  Besides the redistricting referendum, there were three political reform initiatives on the 2005 ballot which went to defeat, two with a complete reverse with respect to the Columbus Dispatch poll, and one with numbers far exceeding the Dispatch poll.  ONe would have stripped authority from the Sec of State, one would have reformed campaign financing, and one would have increased access to absentee ballots. 

Hedges got onto examining Blackwell after he apparently heard a speech by JKB before the Dobson crowd, where Blackwell publicly said he could not support a theocracy, but then gave the audience a giant wink by saying that the overriding principle in his life was the acceptance of Jesus Christ as his personal savior, and that this should be the overriding commitment of all leaders.  

So what does it mean to be a person of character or candidate of character?  Download the document ``Uncommon Sense''  to see the twenty bullet points at issue.  At first glance most read like a nice rather secular cross (no Christian explicitness) between the kind of Christianity centered on what Christ really did and said as espoused by say Jimmy Carter and the kind of American values of freedom and individuality we have come to know and love. 

Look at this one, for example:  

7. ACCOUNTABILITY: High-character people scrutinize themselves and welcome the scrutiny of others. They acknowledge that human nature compels us toward independence. Our preference for independence results in isolation from one another. Isolation breeds temptation to unethical conduct. Highcharacter people resist this chain reaction by adopting transparent life- and work-styles that invite inspection. They place themselves in relationships that motivate self-examination and encourage constructive critique from others, particularly those they serve. (Observable Virtues: an open, up-front, disclosing spirit)

This doesn't sound so bad, and is something if applied well could do a world of good for the BushCo crowd.  However, look at ``those who serve'' and ``welcoming the scrutiny of others,'' then look down the list to:  

11. SERVING-LEADERSHIP: High-character people sacrifice themselves for those they lead. Serving-leaders model and mentor high-character conduct and produce an inspiring environment in which their sacrificial example of serving others produces relational harmony, principled reasoning, effective communication, clear mission, constant learning and character- rich decision-making. Leaders of high character produce cultures of character where followers increasingly manifest virtues rather than vices. (Observable Virtues: courage, humility, selflessness)


12.  UNITY: High-character people strive to build relationships that foster oneness among others who are bound with them to a common promise, mission or purpose. Ethical organizations seek uniformity in their people`s shared character ethics and unity

14. HONORING AUTHORITY: All people are imperfect, requiring boundaries for behavior. High-character people willingly yield to the authority of those who are charged with upholding those boundaries. They help shape and then abide by the legitimate laws, rules and boundaries established by legitimate authorities and strive to live within those boundaries for the betterment of all people. When those given authority violate conscience-convicting character ethics, high-character people take wise action to justly hold them accountable. (Observable Virtues: yieldedness, submission / “aligned with the mission”) among their otherwise richly diverse people. Without a persevering commitment to shared character ethics, there is no hope for sustainable unity. (Observable Virtue: reconciler)

and add 

16. LEARNING & MENTORING: High-character people are lifelong wisdom-seekers and wisdom-advancers. They have both a teachable and a teaching spirit. They impart truth to the uninformed. They reduce ignorance by illuminating the disenfranchised. They multiply character-based people and leaders. They nurture teaching relationships in order to maximize the character and competency of others: they are mentors. Mentors endeavor to invest their lives in others in order to help them help others to attain their greatest potential. (Observable Virtues: curiosity, creativity, teachability, inspiration)

with  

18. SEEKING COUNSEL: High-character people seek wise counsel, particularly when confronted with issues that cause tension and/or confusion between two or more character ethics. Because they are guided by their tireless pursuit of truth, they regularly seek the wisdom of others of high character. After they weigh this counsel, they act. The goal of this process is wise action (what is right), rather than popular action (what would make one appear good) or pragmatic action (what might appear to work). The result of a decision made with wise counsel is a clear conscience and the fruit of a clear conscience is contentment. (Observable Virtues: thoughtfulness, patience, discernment, confidence)

19. SUBMISSION TO TRUTH: Truth transforms people only when we submit to it. People who seek truth cannot not transform. Eventually everyone confronts the power of truth. When people of conscience are confronted by what is true, they feel convicted to replace or “put off” their lower character by pursuing and “putting on” high-character ethics. Taking action on this choice can occur over night or over a long and often painful period.

Who then is responsible for the scrutiny?  Leaders and mentors of course.  WE have to serve them, defer to them, respect them. The mentors network becomes the kind of internalized authoritarian network for self scrutiny we have seen in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Baathist Iraq, or your garden variety religious cult.  Who would counsel? The leaders of course.  What truth would we submit to?  Not that which we arrive at ourselves, but that provided by the leaders. 

Look, Blackwell could be the Huey Long of the new millenium.  He has shown that he is totally unafraid to appropriate power, and we also see from this that any setbacks wih BushCo are minor compared to the determination of the Dobson crowd to keep at this transformation of America.  Of course, this kind of servile public is just what corporations want as well.  

Why is Ohio so susceptible?  I lived there 10 years and can speculate.   The economy is going down, and the Coingate crowd had no interest in fixing it.  I saw then and see now no effort to attract the kind of new economy industries that will help transform the place.  Where California has given us biotech and Silicon Valley, Ohio was most famous as a generator of fast food franchises.  Ohio is intrinsically provincial-I knew many people who had never left the place to live, a few who had just never left, and there is a general attachment to place that seems unusual for those of us who have criss-crossed coast-to-coast.  There is a general skepticism about the newish idea (global warming is a hard sell there, for example) and a resistance to change.  I used to joke that Cleveland is stuck in the NEw Deal era, Columbus in the Eisenhower era, and Cincinnati in the reconstruction era.  IN short, there is a deep rooted sense of traditionalism coupled to a bleak looking future.  That doesn't sound so far from what young people face in islamic countries, and to complete my glib theorizing, the traditional values to reach for in Ohio are of course predominantly Christian ones.  Hence, Ohio went for its version of intelligent design in the schools a few years ago.  Hence, Dobson and Blackwell see Ohio as ripe for theocratic transformation.

The way to keep Ohio a battleground state in this important way is to put a spotlight focus on the activities of Blackwell and crew, and get the national media to out this Character Program for what it is.  

Check it out!  Let's follow Chris Hedges' lead and embarass the media into covering this important story.