Appeal to fear loses out to civility
THE DEBATES ended as they began. Because they did so, Deval Patrick is likely to be the next governor of Massachusetts.
There was one last attack by Kerry Healey on illegal immigration. It was fitting for a floundering campaign. Five weeks ago she claimed that under Patrick, undocumented people with driver's licenses would "disappear into society." All that did, along with all the other fear-mongering, was drop her 25 points behind Patrick in the polls.
Last night, Healey, amid a raucous din, said something about folks, presumably illegal ones, disappearing under Patrick and getting on airplanes. That drew some gasps. But a few moments later, it was time for final remarks from the candidates.
Patrick went back to what has worked so well. He said he was not trying to win by scaring voters. He repeated that his campaign allowed people to vote their aspirations. Though he sometimes remains vague on what the aspirations are, he cast no particular aspersion toward Healey in his final statement.
Healey went back to what has been disastrous. Fear. Think, she warned, what it would mean to have Patrick instead of her. Benefits to illegals. Sex offenders in the streets. Nothing about what she would do.
Short of unforeseen events leading up to Election Day, Patrick, the former US civil rights attorney, appears poised to take advantage of an acute desire among Massachusetts voters for civility. Healey and her minions trotted out themes more likely in the Old South. Fears of rape associated with a black candidate. Fears about immigration associated with a black candidate. Campaign workers showing up at that candidate's house in orange jumpsuits.
Massachusetts voters, if the polls are true, did not buy it. If Patrick wins, the reasons will be similar to why Douglas Wilder of Virginia became the nation's only other elected African-American governor . In Wilder's 1990 inaugural address , he quoted Cicero: "A commonwealth is not any collection of human beings . . . but an assembly of people joined in agreement on justice and partnership for the common good, and a community where civility must reign and all must live peacefully together."
If Patrick wins, he will complete a journey started by P.B.S. Pinchback, an African-American who was briefly appointed governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction. Pinchback said, "I am groping about through this American forest of prejudice and proscription, determined to find some form of civilization where all men will be accepted for what they are worth."
Patrick, with his stunning grassroots campaign, found that form of civilization in Massachusetts. He will have plenty of uncivilized things to attend to as governor. Green-Rainbow Party candidate Grace Ross offered the best rundown of them. She was the most eloquent about high school dropouts, youth violence, and affordable housing. Patrick will get plenty of reality checks on civility in dealing with the Legislature. But this campaign may go down in history as a moment that a state accepted a black man for what he is worth.
His biggest problem, ironically, will be that he is worth a lot. He will have to work harder than he did during the campaign to prove that people really did vote their aspirations.
Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com. 