Veiled political attacks

Commissioner Baller's October email (December Downtown) is a textbook example of political speech intended to be taken figuratively not literally, as many have mistakenly done. This misconception precipitated the anonymous ADL accusations, by Baller's political opponents, which were veiled political attacks masquerading as charges of antiSemitism.

Baller's accusers (see 11/16 Ethics Board video) relied on emotional arguments and even resorted to attacking the board's credibility and objectivity. Clearly their collective goal was/is to eliminate Baller as a political rival, using a false claim of anti-Semitism, to bolster their myriad complaints against his rhetorical style. Ask yourselves why his accusers chose not to file a complaint directly with the ethics board and/or the city commission?

This episode is merely one more in a long list of recent accusations reflecting the national scourge of opportunistic politicians, with the tacit cooperation of some in the media, labeling their political opponents as racists in order to "cancel' them and delegitimize their ideas; the goal being to tar the targeted politician as a pariah rendering him/her unelectable in the future. This is politics by character assassination.

The ethics board, refusing to partake in these political fads, in a reasoned and unanimous decision, concurred that Baller's words are simply commonly used political speech. The board did us all a favor by forcefully defending free speech and returning this battle of ideas to its rightful forum – the ballot box where it belonged from the beginning.

Marc Baker

Birmingham