Gerth: Bizarre ad in Kentucky governor's race would be laughable if it wasn't so infuriating
Robert George is a law and politics professor at Princeton University and he’s studied, lectured on and written extensively about ethics and morality.
So, I figured it would be interesting to ask him about the ad that a political action committee he founded is running online, trying to sway Kentucky’s governor’s race toward Republican Daniel Cameron.
It’s a truly bizarre ad that has a family sitting around the table laughing about how someone named “Jerry” recently bought an electric vehicle.
That wacky Jerry.
Electric?
Can you believe it?
It’s supposed to be Kentucky in a post-Andy Beshear world.
But after they talked about Jerry and his — teehee — electric car, the ad, paid for by the American Principles Project PAC, takes an even odder turn.
By “odder,” I mean completely devoid of any truthfulness and is instead, 100% horse manure.
In the ad, the family’s teenager who had been born with all the markings of a girl, announced that they were transgender.
As the mother tries to tell the teenager that no, they are not a boy, a short-haired woman – undoubtedly she’s supposed to be a lesbian because there’s not a stereotype groups like this don’t love — appears at the kitchen table and announces that the mother isn’t allowed to say that.
“Democrats passed a law banning this type of discussion,” she says.
The next thing you know, two people wearing FBI jackets are sweeping in to remove the teenager from the home.
It would be laughable if it wasn't so infuriating.
First of all, there is no federal law or state law that says a parent can’t discuss with their child whether they are transgender. I'm aware of no attempts to pass such a law, either. And second, the last dealing Beshear had with the FBI that I’m aware of was when agents came to arrest one of his top deputies for public corruption back when he was attorney general.
I wanted to talk to George because the group that is paying for that dishonest ad listed him as a founder and a member of its board of directors — at least it listed him as a member before I started asking him questions.
George is a professor of jurisprudence and the director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton. He has written books about morals and ethics.
According to the Princeton website, he served on the President’s Council on Bioethics and on UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology. It says he is an expert on moral and political philosophy and on bioethics.
Among the books he’s authored are “Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality” and “Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics.”
After I emailed George, the American Principles Project PAC’s website removed his picture from its website and no longer listed George as a member of its board.
What I asked George is whether it is ethical for a political action committee, like the one he founded, to run an ad that is so full of bunk.
He responded to my day-old email minutes after I noticed his name and photo had been removed from the group’s website.
He said he co-founded the American Principles Project with two friends in 2009 to “promote economic empowerment for working Americans; protect the innocence of children, especially online and in school; encourage an immigration policy that was, at once, generous, welcoming, and respectful of the rule of law; and uphold the sanctity of human life in all stages and conditions.”
George said he was involved in the group for seven years but has had no involvement with it since 2016. And that he never served on the board of directors, no matter what the group's website said.
Furthermore, he said he doesn’t comment on the American Principles Project's activities.
I asked if it was ethical to remain silent in the face of such an ethical breach as the untruthful ad appears to be. I didn’t hear back.
I understand why he wouldn’t want to comment.
It would be pretty embarrassing if you were an ethics professor at a directional school in Missouri to be connected to an ad like this.
It’s much worse if you’re a professor who specializes in ethics and morality at arguably the best school in the country — a school that has produced a president, U.S. Supreme Court justices and Alan Turing, the British computer expert who cracked the Enigma code during World War II.
But can you believe Jerry bought an electric car. Crazy Jerry.
Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky governor's race: Bizarre ad doesn't pass ethics test
