My father is a Barry Goldwater Republican. He never voted for a Democrat — until 1984. To this day, dad sports a “Goldwater for President” campaign sticker on his prized 1963 Cadillac convertible.
But in the year of the Ronald Reagan landslide, my dad voted for his first Democrat, U.S. Senate candidate Paul Simon.
My father disagreed with probably 90 percent of Simon’s policy stances. But it wasn’t Nicaragua, or abortion, or the defense budget, or welfare cuts that counted when it came to voting for Paul Simon. It wasn’t even the fact that Simon’s opponent that year, incumbent Charles Percy, was one of the last of the “Rockefeller Republicans” that the Goldwater crowd so despised. Dad had voted for Percy before, and he probably would have done so again if Simon wasn’t on the ballot.
Paul Simon, dad explained, was honest. Unlike most politicians, dad said, you could trust Simon’s word. Barely out of high school, Simon bought a newspaper and used it to rail against the mob and its political allies in the Metro East. He had real guts, dad said.
I’ve always found it astonishing that a staunch conservative like my father would have so much respect, even reverence, for one of the most liberal Democrats this state has ever produced. But dad’s opinion helped me to understand that Simon’s voting record wasn’t why voters gave him two terms in the Senate and would have gladly given him as many as he wanted.
Voters believed they were electing an honest, decent, intelligent, thoughtful man to represent them to their nation’s highest legislative body. It wasn’t about sound bites, or good hair, or the latest wedge issue. It was, instead, about the pride in knowing that they were sending one of their state’s very best citizens to Washington, D.C.
People like Paul Simon don’t come around very often. Just take a quick gander at the current crop of U.S. Senate candidates if you have any doubts. Simon was popular because he was such a rarity. He didn’t have to remind us how honest he was. We knew it.
A few years ago, Simon returned to Springfield and demanded that the General Assembly pass an ethics reform bill. The powers that be at first tried to ignore him, then, when that didn’t work, they attempted to co-opt him. But Simon stayed focused and kept the heat on lawmakers. Eventually, the General Assembly approved the most sweeping ethics reform law in the state’s history.
Some ex-politicians become lobbyists, others join corporate boards and spend their sunset years golfing. Simon chose a different path. And we are all the better for it.
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Paul Simon’s last interview with Illinois Times, published
on Oct. 30, is available on our Web site.
This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2003.
