FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

Consider this a pointed non-endorsement of endorsements politicians make of each other on the grounds that they're friends. Even when the endorser is John Lewis, one of the only people out there I could honestly describe both as a personal hero and as a member of Congress. The argument that you should vote for someone because he's my friend is up there with the argument that you should vote for someone because he's principled - and the two questionable arguments tend to travel together. One substitutes motivation for worldview as the determinative qualification for office. The other substitutes the judgment of someone you know you like for your own judgment about how much you should like a candidate. To be sure, citizens in a democracy defer to each other's judgment all the time (what makes it democratic is that we each get to choose when and whether and to whom to defer, rather than having the franchise yanked from us by elitists). But it's one thing to make an electoral choice by turning to those who know the issues in most depth. It's another to make it by turning to those who know the candidate personally. The latter is reminiscent of Jon Stewart's quip that Bill O'Reilly was "the kind of swing voter who doesn't make a decision until both candidates come and talk to you." Politicians in Washington only encourage a cynical view of our representatives when they trade endorsements on the grounds of having looked into each other's hearts like Bush did to Putin. The irony here is that politicians, with a huge assist from the media, actually use the friendship rationale to escape critical reviews of their endorsements. If you're going to weigh in publically on someone else's campaign - and by all means do - then it should be in terms that can be popularly evaluated and critiqued. It shouldn't rest entirely on personal one-on-one experience any more than it should on personal religious conviction.