One of the scandals du jour (it’s appalling that it’s not unusual to think this way these days) is the revelation that Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen paid a certain John Gauger to attempt to influence some online polls early in the primaries for the Republican Presidential nomination. Just to cover my bases, I’ll note that online polls are pathetic, Gauger’s efforts reportedly failed, and Gauger claims Cohen didn’t fully pay him for his efforts.
That’s two: Trump and Cohen.
But I’ve read three articles on this, in WaPo, Heavy, and Maddowblog, and listened to Colbert, and they all seem to be ignoring the implications of an interesting little bit, which Maddowblog provides but then ignores:
To execute the plan, Cohen reportedly hired John Gauger, the chief information officer at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, and the owner of a small tech company called RedFinch Solutions LLC.
Bold mine. Sure, it seems reasonable to write him off as a techie with questionable morals. But Heavy contributes a bit more:
An article on Liberty University’s website says that Gauger was hired by the school in August 2012. Gauger’s first role as the Director of Specialized Initiatives. That piece says that Gauger is a Liberty graduate, as part of the class of 2009. Gauger gained an M.B.A. and a B.S. in business from Liberty.
Aaaaaaand we’re through with putting him off as a bit-part techie. He’s got the Liberty University imprimatur, and now we have him, along with his boss Jerry Falwell, Jr., engaging in ethically or intellectually dubious enterprises.
Of course, we all know online polls aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, if you’ll permit the bad joke. But does that excuse this sort of behavior? The point of any poll is to communicate to its sponsors, as well as anyone to whom the sponsors release it, an honest assessment of the opinions of the respondents, and use that information in an attempt to further characterize some part of the general populace. Attempting to game any such poll constitutes intellectual fraud and, therefore, moral depravity.
I shan’t belabor the point. I also have little patience for cries of sin, redemption, everyone makes mistakes, and the favorite of the age, But what about Hillary? An institution of such religious rectitude should instill in its graduates and employees an allergy to fraudulent behavior, and if the institute is going to press a claim to higher learning, it should also instill a yearning for intellectual honesty. In neither Falwell nor Gauger do we see these things.
Given the evangelicals’ Satanic love and devotion to Trump, is this another clue that the evangelical movement has really just been a fraud all along? Generally, I’m fairly happy that evangelicals don’t show up at my door trying to convert me, but these days I’d actually welcome a visit. It could be a lot of fun imperiously demanding that they improve their morals.
