Preece: A Watchlist Is Not An Argument

By David Preece, InDepth NH

Joe Sweeney and his political consulting firm, Solutions for New Hampshire, are spending $50,000 promoting a website that claims to identify the “socialist threat” on New Hampshire ballots.

I know because I am one of the elected representatives it has branded “Fully Socialist.”

We have seen this kind of politics before. It has a name: McCarthyism.

During the Red Scare, Senator Joseph McCarthy destroyed reputations and careers by attaching frightening labels to people without proving misconduct. Accusation became evidence. Association became guilt. Fear replaced honest debate.

In 1950, Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith of neighboring Maine stood against that abuse in her courageous “Declaration of Conscience.” She warned that political victory should not be achieved through character assassination and the exploitation of fear. Her lesson is as urgent today as it was then.

Sweeney’s website gives that old tactic a digital makeover. It selects certain legislative votes, matches them to broad policy positions associated with the Democratic Socialists of America, and then treats similarity on those votes as proof that lawmakers are socialists. It labels me “Fully Socialist” with a score of 100 percent because I cast what it calls the “DSA-aligned” vote on 36 measures.

But that score does not define me. It does not explain why I cast any particular vote, what the legislation actually did, or how it affected the people I was elected to represent. It certainly does not prove allegiance to an outside organization. It proves only that Joe Sweeney created a formula and that his formula produced the frightening label his campaign wanted.

I am prepared to defend my votes. I have voted according to my judgment about what would help New Hampshire families, protect our communities, support public education, strengthen healthcare, respect working people, and preserve our environment. My colleagues may disagree with those decisions. Voters may disagree as well. That is democracy.

What is not healthy democratic debate is declaring that legislators who reach different conclusions constitute a “threat.”

The website also brands 17-term Representative John Cloutier of Claremont “Fully Socialist.” Yet it admits that these labels are Granite Solutions ratings—not DSA endorsements. Neither my score nor Representative Cloutier’s establishes membership in the DSA, support for its entire platform, or fealty to any political organization.

The database may contain actual roll-call votes, but using real numbers does not automatically produce an honest conclusion. Choose the categories, select the votes, write loaded descriptions, and impose an arbitrary threshold, and nearly any legislator can be made to resemble nearly any organization.

The site counts votes concerning school meals, wastewater projects, affordable prescription drugs, protections for tenants, renewable energy, and an end to subminimum wages. It then wraps those decisions in inflammatory language, describing support for public schools as defending a “government school monopoly” and housing protections as “government control of rental property.” That is not neutral voter education. It is partisan advertising disguised as analysis.

Sweeney is entitled to oppose every vote I cast. He can argue that a proposal costs too much, gives government too much authority, or represents the wrong priority. He can campaign against me and urge voters to reject my record. Those are legitimate parts of representative government.

But branding me and other public servants as ideological threats crosses a line. The website urges visitors to “identify the socialist threat closest to you,” highlights legislators elected by narrow margins, and provides downloadable graphics meant for rapid circulation. Its purpose is not simply to examine our records. It is to stigmatize us, frighten voters, and turn elected representatives into targets.

Republicans should be concerned too. Once political watchlists become acceptable, no one controls where they end. Today, Democrats are branded socialists. Tomorrow, Republicans who depart from party orthodoxy may be branded traitors or enemies. Democracy cannot function when every disagreement becomes disloyalty and every opponent becomes a threat.

New Hampshire voters deserve more respect. They can read our voting records, consider competing arguments, and decide whether we have represented them well. They do not need a political consultant to replace thoughtful judgment with a red label and a manufactured score.

I will accept criticism for every vote I have cast. I will not accept the premise that caring about schools, healthcare, working families, housing, and our environment makes me—or any other legislator—a threat to New Hampshire.

Joe McCarthy taught America how easily fear can become a political weapon. Margaret Chase Smith taught us that courage means refusing to remain silent when it does.

New Hampshire should remember which example is worthy of following.

Rep. David Preece, D-Manchester, Hillsborough District 17, Manchester

This story was originally published by InDepth NH.