I posted earlier today on the effort of a Milwaukee woman running as an independent candidate for the Wisconsin Assembly to use the words “NOT the whiteman’s bitch” as her statement of principle on the ballot. The Government Accountability Board denied her request, as she received a majority supporting her effort, but not the required four votes.
I wrote that she should be able to use those words, or any others, as long as they were not words threatening violence or a defamatory statement. See, Let Ieshuh Griffin Run with Her Chosen Description on the Wisconsin Ballot.
She’s now appealing the GAB decision to federal court. See, Candidate Takes Her Ballot Fight to Federal Court.
I’d guess that most people think that she shouldn’t be able to use these words. I’ve a few additional remarks:
I agree that the current state of the law favors the Government Accountability Board’s ability to restrict these words; I simply think that the law should not be so restrictive. She has an uphill climb.
Although there’s a general freedom of speech issue here, I’d agree that it’s not found in the current scope of law.
Griffin may be a fool, vulgar, and an embarrassment, but so what? If vulgarity were a crime, America’s prison population would quadruple.
There’s no reason to be so squeamish. The answer isn’t to stop her from having the words she wants, on a ballot for adults, and seen by adults.
Here’s a quick way to express one’s displeasure with her preferred statement of principle: vote for someone else.
She’s not likely to win, of course, but what if she did? I live in Whitewater, Wisconsin, not Milwaukee, so it’s not available to me to vote against her. That’s a choice for the voters of Griffin’s Milwaukee district. If they’re sensible (as they will prove to be), they’ll vote for someone else. If they’re foolish, they’ll vote for her.
If voters in that district want to make a foolish choice, let them do so.
They should be able to see and vote for Griffin (or other candidates) as those politicians wish to present themselves. Better that they should see her for what she is, than that the Government Accountability Board should sanitize and clean up her campaign, so to speak.
After seeing Ieshuh Griffin as she wishes to be seen, I’m sure that the voters of her district will make a sensible decision about her candidacy. But if not, and those voters choose foolishly, at least they won’t be able to say that they didn’t know what she professed, printed as it should be, right on the ballot.