“I’m not a witch” common claim in American politics

Christine O’Donnell not being a witch.

The strategy employed by Christine O’Donnell, making the claim that she is not a witch, is not new. The practice of American politicians making this claim finds its roots in Salem Massachusetts where it was a common practice to start and end every speech with “I’m not a witch”. The strategy is said to date back to a Salem candidate for Mayor named Wally Witchman who not only lost the race but was burned at the stake after his opponents’ inauguration.

The practice fell out of favor after the witch trials ended. However, variants of the strategy have lived on from John Adams re-election campaign slogan “I’m not a psychopath and I’ll imprison anyone who says different!” to the slogan used by John McCain in 2008 “I’m Senator McCain not Mr. Hyde”. In light of the “Twilight” phenomenon it is quite possible Michael Dukakis could have won his 1988 presidential bid if he had embraced the claims he was a vampire.

Strategist Ken Bishop, of the Alliance for Humanizing Creatures of the Night (AHCN), believes it is a flawed strategy that only furthers stereotypes that have plagued witches, vampires and other “monsters” for centuries. Why not say “I am a witch”? After all a witch really isn’t as scary as a politician is. “I think it would be refreshing to voters to hear a candidate say ‘As a matter of fact I am a werewolf and an American and I’m Proud of both.’ now that is a candidate I could get behind.” Said Mr. Bishop

John McCain or Mr. Hyde?

Looking back at past campaigns we see some validity to what Mr. Bishop and the AHCN are asserting. Research into past presidential campaigns has revealed that every candidate who has employed the strategy has lost. Andrew Jackson is the only example of a candidate who embraced the “monster” label when he used the slogan “Yes I am a talking Jackass. What are you going to do about it!?” This slogan not only won him the presidency but it also immortalized him to future generations when Eddie Murphy voiced a character in the movie “Shrek” based on Jackson.

The time has come for political candidates to rethink this strategy and come out telling the voters that they are just monsters. Who can forget the Kerry ad telling America that he was not the Frankenstein monster or the Bob Dole ads assuring the public that he would not be eating anyone’s brains? Perhaps if O’Donnell would just come out and say “I am a witch” she wouldn’t be as scary to voters.