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Unethical Website of the Month September 2004
Fthevote
It is enough to make one wonder whether democracy is worth fighting for after all. In fact, it makes one wonder about a lot of things, like the wisdom of lowering the voting age, whether your parents were actually right about the sexual revolution leading to the end of civilization, oh, the list is endless. For September's stunningly and creatively unethical website is Fthevote.com, the website that aims to defeat George W. Bush by exchanging sex for a promise to vote for someone else. Yes, that's what the F stands for.
We're not making this up, though we wish we were. It would be funnier.
Here's how the site works. Anti-Bush hotties are encouraged to register on the website, including their photos, sexual preferences, locations and contact information. They are available for sexual intimacies with anyone in their vicinity who agrees to sign a pledge…in advance of l'amour…in which they promise not to vote to re-elect the President if only the liberal sex-machine in question will light their fire. Other sexy Bush-haters who don't want to work quite so hard can download the pledge and track down their "target conservative," presumably a well-connected, over-weight, bespectacled, bow-tied geek with a heart of stone (you know the type: a Republican), by hosting an "FTV House Party" or just by seducing the horny little racist war-monger. He (or she) will be so desperate for hot monkey love that he (or she) will gladly sign the pledge and dutifully scorn the Bush-Cheney ticket come Election Day.
As Steve Martin memorably said in All of Me, when informed that his rich client planned to transfer her soul and her assets to her young secretary using the paranormal powers of an Eastern guru: "Good plan!"
Which opens up the unavoidable question as to whether this site is truly unethical or just jaw-droppingly stupid in a funny, disturbing way. Maybe it's just a joke. Maybe it's a camouflaged hook-up site. Maybe it's a genuinely caring site that aims to satiate the animal drives of the lonely and shunned right-wingers of the world. Maybe. But somehow, Ethics Scoreboard thinks the Fthevote.com folks are serious:
By stripping conservatives out of their clothes, we can also strip them
of their power. Believe it or not, even the most deeply rooted right-wing
ideologue can be manipulated by sex. As we all know, the sex drive is
a powerful beast that has the potential to change people. People lie for
sex, they cheat for sex, they even kill for sex - and you can be sure
that they will change the way they think (and therefore vote) for sex.
All you need to be armed with are your sexy progressive values, a razor-sharp
wit, your genitalia, and a mindset that doesn't mind taking one for the
team.
If this is satire, then Andy Kaufman lives.
Why is this unethical? The scheme is voter fraud in spirit, if not in letter: F might as well stand for "fraud.". It is against the law to induce another to vote for a certain candidate by compensation, or to use enticements to get someone not to vote. Fthevote's lawyers think they have weaseled out of the statute by not specifying a favored candidate and only offering sex in exchange for a promise not to vote a certain way. But it's voter fraud, whether they've found a loop hole that shields them from prosecution or not. It undermines the election process by using material inducements, not information, persuasion or argument, to influence election results. That's wrong; it is a form of cheating. It is also a form of prostitution, though Fthevote may have found a loophole around that as well.
Back in the old, bare-knuckled days of bi-partisan election rigging, party operatives bought the votes of poor people with dollar bills and hungry people with sausages. That was degrading to the democratic process and to the individuals who sold their votes, and so are Fthevote's efforts to manipulate sexually deprived conservatives. Yes indeed, there is good reason to doubt whether anyone who would sign the group's pledge in exchange for an anti-Bush boink would actually honor it, and yes, there is a good probability that Fthevote will generate one night stands and little else. But the concept epitomizes the "ends justify the means" mentality that long ago poisoned this presidential race on both sides. The smirks and chuckles that Fthevote assumes will protect it from attack are undercut by the contempt, cynicism and desperation that lurk in its methods. The website reduces the greatest privilege of American democracy to a cheap back-alley barter, and that more than earns it September's Unethical Website title.