Local Opinion: Voting record should accompany pols op-ed's

The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer.

Op-eds are powerful instruments that shift the Overton Window. Take Sen. Tom Cotton’s, R.-Ark., recent controversial piece in The New York Times about the militarization of police. It sounded implausible, and the Times took flack for publishing it, but soon after, it became policy in Portland, Oregon.

Sen. Susan Collins, R.-Maine, wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in 2016 listing all the reasons she could not support a Trump presidency. Americans had good reason to believe she would vote accordingly, but she has spent the last four years — though “very concerned” — voting much in line with President Trump, including high-profile votes against Trump’s impeachment and to confirm his Supreme Court nominees.

In 2017, deficit hawks wrote op-ed after op-ed about the need to be fiscally conservative; then every single Republican in the Senate, excluding holdout Sen. Bob Corker, R.-Tenn, went on to vote for the $1.9 trillion tax cut. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R.-Iowa, ranted about the Pentagon’s unchecked spending and then voted just weeks ago to keep its budget the same, without audit.

Rep. David Schweikert, R.-Ariz., recently wrote an op-ed for The Hill, lamenting the skyrocketing cost of health care and surprise hospital bills. Schweikert’s op-ed professed that he is working toward health care solutions, but he votes consistently — seven times during this administration — against repairing the health care system. Though recent contradictory op-eds are by Republicans, this hypocrisy happens across party lines.

Op-eds shield their authors under the guise of “opinion,” but lend them a megaphone for their message. The problem is not the words or the forum where they’re published or distributed. We need these avenues, as mainstream media outlets are much more accessible and easier to digest than C-SPAN and Congress’s roll call sites.

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The problem is op-eds often directly contradict their author’s voting record.

When our representatives vote counter to what they’ve written, no one calls them on it in the public forum. As Americans, constituents and voters, we accept this policy of “do what I say and not as I do.”

It is incumbent on media outlets as gatekeepers and publishers of these voices to hold them to the truth. Without accountability, the op-ed column is a sanctioned disinformation campaign.

Even opinions should be grounded in facts. Good writing includes vetted sources. All op-eds authored by public officials should be published alongside their voting record on the issue. Their opinion and voting record must stand up next to each other.

The idea that big names get to say whatever they want regardless of their record needs to end. America must be held to a standard of truth and we as Americans must all hold our representatives to this standard any and every way that we can.