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In the 1950's, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy cast a shadow of fear across America by conducting a smear campaign of guilt by association. McCarthyism has come to stand for the worst in smear tactics through guilt by association. As we in Sun City look forward to our upcoming election campaign cycle for the Board, the issue of smear tactics has apparently raised its ugly head.

Did David Berman, in his Board candidate reviews, ostensibly written under the guise of informing his blog readers of the candidates qualities, engage in a form of political shenanigans when he “outed” Board candidate John Briggs when he was a CA state senator for his anti-homosexual initiative in 1978 that would have allowed CA voters to prevent gay and lesbians from teaching in public schools if they were deemed by the school board to be unfit to teach? I happen to believe that is exactly what David Berman was all about when he told us about what John Briggs did about 30 years ago. That subsequently failed proposition had been drafted in response to a 1975 California law that had prevented local school boards from firing teachers for homosexuality.

For the most part, I found David’s truth telling efforts an embarrassment, greatly diminishing my respect for David and his otherwise fine editorial skills. As a presumed closet liberal, David’s tolerance of others was barely visible. But, as David will readily admit, his goal here was less to illuminate than to suppress Community support for Briggs as a candidate for the Board. Whether or not you view David’s pointed efforts directed at Mr. Briggs as shameful, I hope you share my view that his actions were unworthy and disappointing. Sadly, David has set a very low standard in evaluating the worthiness of candidates for the Board of Directors.  

Some might be inclined to compare what David Berman, husband of Board member Roz Berman and unrelated to Board member Bob Berman, had done for Sun City election year politics to what Senator Joseph McCarthy did in the 1950s in his efforts to discredit those he felt needed to be politically outed due to their left-wing or alleged communist sympathies. Both individuals shared a common political agenda, namely, to discredit another while at the same time attempting to portray that their motives were honorable.

Here you can read for yourselves what David wrote and draw your own conclusions. There are 5 parts to David's blog on Briggs, which is displayed here in a 12-page .pdf document. On page one of my .pdf file David presents his thoughts about Briggs (written last) while the remaining Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 (written prior to his "thoughts") follow in that order. David on John Briggs.

While addressing some relevant issues, such as a claim to Briggs' alleged part-time residency, one can quickly ascertain the primary focus of David’s considerable attention.  And, by the way, our long-time resident spokesperson and respected leader Favil West made periodic visits out-of-state in "his" commercially owned out-of-state registered vehicle (Montana?).