Think before you speak. This is a dictum that I am sure most of us have heard at one point or another, and I think that most of us can agree that it is a worthy idea to uphold. But what about politicians? Do they always think before they speak? What are the consequences when they don’t?

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” Those were the words of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., spoken at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, Calif., on Oct. 30.

Shortly after Kerry made this statement, a number of people became very angry with him because they believed that Kerry was insulting the intelligence of our men and women in the military. Kerry’s response was that it was a botched joke about President Bush, and that he wasn’t going to apologize to anyone about it, but he did later apologize “to any service member, family member, or American who was offended.”

In June of 2005, Sen. Dick Durbin compared the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay to the murderous regimes of Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. Unlike the other examples, this was no off-the-cuff remark or spontaneous response to current events: this was part of a speech given on the floor of the Senate.

In August 2005, evangelical Christian Pat Robertson made a few offhand remarks on “The 700 Club” about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. These remarks followed up an analysis on Chavez and the threat that he posed to the United States. “. This man is a terrific danger, and this is in our sphere of influence . we have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability.”

In the Feb. 10, 2003 edition of National Review, writer Byron York mentioned an antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C., that happened to pass the national headquarters of the College Republicans. Some of them, looking to make a statement, pulled a dry-erase board from their wall and wrote “Go Home Hippies” on it. They proudly displayed it on their second-floor balcony, much to the chagrin of the protesters below, who responded with “F— you!”

In each situation, there was a person or group who said something that generally would be considered silly, or stupid, or inappropriate. Regardless of Kerry’s intent, the “botched joke” was a stupid remark either way, and he should have left President Bush and Iraq out of his speech (it almost seems like he brought up Iraq just to bring it up). Durbin made what many people at the time considered to be a gross comparison that was without merit. Pat Robertson was frustrated with the state of things and thought out loud about assassination as a means to resolve it. The College Republicans in Washington, no matter how clever they thought they were being, were merely fighting fire with fire and provoking very obscene responses while doing it.

Honestly, is it so much to ask political figures and groups to watch what they say?
I realize that silly statements and throwaway remarks may very well come with the territory of politics. Since I am not a politician, I plead ignorance. However, when we’ve got U.S. senators making asinine jokes about the military (or President Bush, if you’d like), and comparing Gitmo to three of the worst regimes that history has ever seen, I do not see politics as usual; I see a failure of our elected officials to think about what they are saying. When we’ve got groups looking for a fight and making unwise statements in a politically volatile atmosphere, I do not see cleverness, but immaturity.

It is important for people to be careful of what they say, because words and actions convey ideas. This is important because ideas have consequences. In a culture that is inundated with entertainment, around-the-clock news feeds and countless pundits and pollsters, it is easy to get lost in the sea of information that is the reality of the world in which we live. But we must not allow ourselves to reduce the power of the idea to that of a drop in the ocean; we must realize that all ideas have consequences, for better or worse. Politicians especially need to bear this in mind, because making any kind of statement inevitably carries an idea along with it, which is why it is so important to clearly communicate the idea. It is also important to clear up any confusion that anyone may have about the idea, in a reasonable and thoughtful manner.

Now, has anyone truly perfected this practice? I would not assume so. People are people after all, and we all screw up and make honest mistakes, but there comes a point when “I don’t have to apologize to anyone” just doesn’t cut it. The consequences of an idea must be faced, for better or worse. Now, I hope that I am not over-dramatizing the issue; not all consequences are severe. But consequences are consequences, no matter what their weight. It’s an idea, at any rate.