Living in Kentucky I have the privilege to hear the second most amount of negative political ads in the country, only surpassed by Alan Grayson’s district in Fla.
Outside groups have spent nearly $20 million dollars attacking Jack Conway, which is over $10 per voter. As much as I try to avoid the MSM, because I don’t believe complex socio-economic issues can be reduced to a one sentence sound byte, with this amount of money being spent on advertising it is nearly impossible to ignore.
The reason outside groups are spending so much money on negative advertising, besides the fact that they can, is historically negative advertising works in favor of the candidate that is pro-corporate interest vs. the candidate that is pro-middle and working class.
Negative advertising stirs up the emotions of the people that don’t look deeper into the issues and turn the thoughtful people away from politics altogether.
Most people out there are tired of turning on the radio only to hear two attack ads and one ad for an actual business, they are sick of having to walk into a store that has a TV playing and listening to only attack ads. If we as people were to say enough and vote for any candidate that pledged to stop the unlimited amount money that can be spent on ads by outside interests we could take our airwaves back and not be subjected to these ads that are designed not to inform us of anything but merely disgust us to the point where we feel dirty for doing our civic duty and voting.
So I say to all the outside groups that flooding the airwaves with disgusting attack ads, “Shut up Stupid, you’ve gone way to far. If I didn’t have any other reason for voting this year I would vote for the Democrats just to limit the amount of money that you are allowed to spend in negative advertising. Because if I end up listening to this crap all of October in an off-year election then in 2012 with higher stakes I imagine that all ad spots will be bought up in July and I’ll only hear this garbage for 4 months and no legitimate business will be able to advertise.”
By Darrell B. Nelson author of Invasive Thoughts
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3 comments:
I cannot wait for this election to be over. I have never seen so many ads, let alone so many disgusting ads from both sides (well, maybe three sides) that I won't turn on the TV unless I'm going to rent a film. Your indignation is righteous.
Blick. I don't watch TV. I don't listen to the radio.
And I've STILL seen more ads than I can stomach.
What we need (and I've said it before) is a "none of the above" option which, if voted on sufficiently kicks out BOTH candidates and keeps doing so until someone comes in WORTH voting FOR.
I also believe campaign spending should be curtailed with a item sheet sent to every voter that lists every candidate writing in 500 words or less why they should be elected (if they want to spend their 500 on bashing the opposition, fine) that is reviewed by an independent fact checking organization and all demonstrably untrue items excised.
And that's it. Let the government pay for it. No ads. No signs. Nothing else. Debates are fine.
Campaign money is a way of buying my representatives. And it should be illegal.
This year the amount of money spent on ads was obscene, the candidates and outside interests had to search for places to buy advertising, the best example of this is the fact Sarah Palin has spent $2 this month advertising for SarahPac on my site through google adwords. I'm somehow doubting that someone will read my opinion of her and say, "Gee that sounds like someone I should donate to."
Even funnier was I saw that ad on the "immoral minority" website run by someone she had thrown out of her rallies and that she publicly attacked. I had to giggle at her sending money to the people her paranoid mind blames for her defeat.
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