Blue Collar Muse

Ken, you are so right. I listened to Mae’s interview with Ralph Bristol and came away thinking Mae sounded like politician who was trying to say something without saying anything. When people can’t trust her ‘Word’ what is there left to trust? Nothing.

Ned -

You are exactly right. This falls into the realm of personal decisions. I have never denied that Mae has the right and ability to make whatever decisions she wants for herself. The issue arises when Mae, or anyone else, doesn’t want to be responsible for the results of those decisions.

What does it take for you to be confident that a decision made is a decision made? Mae never said she was merely “thinking” about the run for Mayor. It wasn’t an exploratory effort. She declared she was running for Mayor, raised money specifically to run for Mayor, said she was leaving the Senate and, even after she changed her mind described herself on the radio as a person who means what she says! Either there’s a disconnect or she’s saying things in a language I don’t understand.

You are also correct that Integrity is not a Conservative ideal. But as enshrined in the Conservative notion of personal responsibility, it becomes a measure of how well or poorly a man measures up to the label of Conservative. There is nothing inherently requiring integrity in the Liberal agenda. As you point out, their moral relativism makes that only theoretically possible.

Further, their savaging of individual rights means they do not really want a body of values to exist that is separate from and superior to the individual’s own decision about right and wrong. Thus integrity to the Left is merely doing whatever the individual decides is right today or at this moment. For Conservatives, there exists a moral code outside of oneself that we claim allegiance to. Therefore our behavior can be measured against it and our failure to live up to its standards can be pointed out. That’s what I’m doing with Mae.

There is a long history of the validity of taking a person at their word. If I leave you with the impression that I am going to do something then that is what I am telling you I am going to do. For example, if I rob someone and tell them I have a weapon then I am charged with using a weapon in the commission of that crime even if it can be later shown that I did not. Why? Because I said I did and that’s sufficient. What would Mae have to do to convince you she really was running for County Mayor? Pinky-swear? Put it in writing? Take a blood oath? What’s wrong with simply taking her at her word?

And if we accept Mae’s own evaluation of her character – that she is a person who means what she says, then she is on very thin ice here. She committed to do something and others trusted her to follow through on her stated plan. If she chooses to later change her mind, she is free to do so. But she is not free – not under any system that can be said to be fair or moral – to repudiate her own word and then force others to be responsible for her irresponsibility.

I had a friend tell me earlier that it wasn’t a real problem since Rep Lynn and others probably wouldn’t have spent too much money and so they wouldn’t be out a great deal. Is right and wrong now to be decided on a dial like a tachometer? It’s OK for Mae to do this because it will only cost other people a little bit of money? When do we get to the point where we’re now definitely in the “this is wrong” part of the dial and who decides that?

It’s not that Mae can’t go back to the Senate race because that choice is wrong. That choice is wrong because Mae’s own decisions were trusted by others and they made choices that Mae now wants to invalidate by changing her mind. Mae wants to harm others by her choice and that’s what makes it wrong. That the harm may not be seen by some to be significant is irrelevant.

Finally, not only is what Mae doing wrong, it’s wrong on every level that I can find wherein Mae has claimed justification for her actions and a few that she hasn’t. I hope to explore some of those other areas in the days ahead. Stay tuned …

Good for Susan Lynn for sticking to her word. Looks like Mae Beavers could learn a lesson from her. Mae, you do realize that you’re destroying your credibility, don’t you? What happens if the people don’t re-elect you? Then you will have lost out on both the senate and the mayor opportunities. Do the right thing! It’s not too late! We don’t elect many flip-floppers here. All you have is your word, and if that’s no good, then you may be a democrat.

@Get Real -

I’d have taken you to task for being anonymous and thread-jacking the conversation but I don’t need to as Miss Carol did a fine job of doing just that.

I will add that your participation here is obviously not to discuss the matter at hand. Instead you came by to get in a dig or two at Mae’s opponent – all while completely ignoring and misunderstanding the points I was making.

In case you come back and so you know, let me spell it out. You say “Folks have a real short memory to question Mae being a real conservative.” No one here has done so. You are putting those words in my mouth. I believe Mae to be a Conservative. In fact, I plainly stated that several times in the post. It is precisely BECAUSE I believe that about Mae that her action is so puzzling. Mae is a Conservative. This specific action is not. That’s the issue … stick to it or feel free to get your own blog and opine on irrelevant matters over there.

What action is it that is not Conservative? You say it’s Mae “changing [her] mind”. Not it’s not. Had you actually read what I wrote you would note that I allowed that Mae had every right to change her mind about running for Wilson County Mayor. Just like she had every right to choose to run for Mayor. What is NOT Conservative is for Mae to believe she can re-enter the Senate race as if nothing had changed from the time she left and precisely because she left. THAT is the issue. Please stick to it.

Explain to me how Mae re-entering the Senate race and upending the lives and plans of people who based their actions on Mae’s stated intention is in any way compatible with the Conservative values of personal responsibility for the consequences of one’s actions.

That’s the issue. That’s the topic. Speak to it or move on. No more thread jacks, please.

@Ned -

It’s been a bit mystifying to have folks equate what Senator Beavers has done as just a simple case of “changing her mind”.

She has every right to change her mind and choose not to run for County Mayor. But to jump back into the Senate race and suggest, as she has, that now Representative Lynn has plenty of time to drop out of the Senate race is beyond simply “changing her mind”.

The “consequences of her actions” for which she should be held accountable is that there is absolutely ZERO evidence that Representative Lynn would have run for the District 17 Senate seat or that any of the folks running for Representative Lynn’s seat would have made the decisions they did had Senator Beavers not stated clearly that she was surrendering her Senate seat to run for County Mayor.

Mae herself has publicly stated that those who know her know that when she says something she means it. She said she was leaving the Senate. People took her at her word. Something changed and now the Senator wants the freedom to run back to the Senate seat she surrendered as if nothing had changed. But things did change. Mae owes it to herself and to her constituents to abide by the very thing she points out in herself as a strength and a positive – that people can count on her word being her bond.

I never suggested that anyone was, officially or unofficially, abiding by the “wait your turn” political premise. I agree that is usually bad for voters. But when Mae moved on, Susan chose to move over. Mae wants to rescind her decision and is spinning it as of no consequence. She’s wrong. It is.

Bluntly – she chose to leave. Others made decisions in good faith based on that choice. If she changes her mind and chooses not to continue to her stated destination, she has every right to do that. But to try and pretend she never said she was leaving is not the same thing.

As to deriding or vilifying her, I’m unclear where you got that. I’m not sure how many times in the post I wrote of my respect for Senator Beavers. If pointing out an area in which she is mistaken and wrong is derision and vilification then I suppose I should stop engaging in politics in general. Much of our job as responsible citizens is to point out when and where politicians are missing the mark. I don’t particularly expect to be thanked by the candidate. But I think classifying my remarks as “derision and vilification” is a bit over the top.

[...] a conservative Tennessee blogger put it – “Before Mae announced she was running for Wilson County Mayor, she had options. Any [...]