Well, that was stupid. Stanislaus must prevent future `Let’s go Brandon’ blunders

Every message from government to its people should be double- and triple-checked to assure that it doesn’t include wildly inappropriate content.

It’s hard to believe this statement needs saying. But the recent, incredibly embarrassing “Lets Go Brandon” gaffe — stamped in red ink on official correspondence from the Stanislaus County Assessor and Treasurer-Tax Collector’s offices to more than 500 residents — suggests otherwise.

“Let’s go Brandon” is a euphemism for the most vulgar put-down you might imagine aimed at President Joe Biden. The accidental slogan was quickly adopted by his critics on the right smirking at what they deem to be a clever insult lacking profanity while evoking it. The left is understandably appalled.

How the slogan ended up on the backs of tax-related envelopes from our own county offices is almost beside the point. It’s enough to say it was a carelessly egregious mistake, one made by a firm contracting to send mail on the county’s behalf.

Recipients won’t immediately know that the county wasn’t behind it; they will receive a letter of apology, the government office told Modesto Bee reporter Ken Carlson.

The contractor is an extension of the agency itself, and must pay a steep price for this unforced error.

In these times of polarized divisiveness, it should go without saying that agencies must bend over backward to avoid taking sides and throwing gas on the fire. That requires every effort, and then some, to make sure vendor firms do not, under any circumstance, mindlessly botch something this way.

When government badly stumbles, trust is lost. That’s something no agency can afford in any age, much less one rocked with partisan rancor.

County officials must apologize, fix the problem, hold the contractor accountable and exact a concession on behalf of our taxpayers. They deserve to have confidence in the people hired to serve and not inflame them.