By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com
The 2008 election cycle may present us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to deal a fatal blow to the tendency towards negativity in American political campaigns. As it looks now, we may be presented with a real choice. One campaign looks poised to argue that their man is better because his opponent is corrupt, unpatriotic, inexperienced and a liar. The other seems to believe that Americans deserve better and is dedicated to advancing the political dialogue rather than the political spectacle. We should take advantage of the opportunity to choose substance and respectful dialogue over character assassination and mud-slinging.
Negative campaigning has worked its way into the center of American politics and we are very much the worse for it. Important issues – which require extended and thoughtful analysis and discussion – are ignored at great cost to the American people. Campaigns are now based thirty second ads that, more often than not, spend more time talking negatively about the opponent than positively about the candidate whose organization sponsored it.
We have gotten so used to it that we actually expect the people who are running for the Presidency to act like spoiled, petulant children – to bend the truth and often to downright lie. Many political junkies relish the negativity because it makes campaigns more like sporting events – the bigger the distortion – the more direct the character attack – the better. The process of campaigning for president has become more spectacle than substance.
It has gotten so bad that the talking heads – you know, those ‘game show hosts’ parading as ‘journalists’ – frequently resort to sports metaphors when describing the process. A presidential campaign should not descend to the level of a sporting event. Sporting events are games and, in the broad spectrum of things, they are irrelevant and unimportant. But American presidential politics is about issues which affect our lives and those of generations to come.
Our presidential elections – these twenty-four month absurdities which feature the spectacle of two candidates who are so disrespectful of the country, Constitution, honesty, truth and the American people that they reduce the entire process of campaigning something resembling a professional wrestling match – have made us the laughing stock of the modern world and severely limited our future. Most of the rest of the world has trouble understanding why Americans consistently elect the person who has done a better job at slandering his opponent with impunity. I will freely admit that I do as well.
If this substanceless drivel parading as political debate is really what the American people want then they deserve that derision. But we live in dangerous times – the very future of our Republic hangs in the balance – we need to be better than that and demand that our politicians are too. We need to insist that political dialogues between candidates are conducted in a respectful and reasoned manner. We need to insist that candidates tell us what they stand for and why it is important to us. We need to have an extend dialogue on issues which range from energy to immigration. And, we need to punish those who stain the flag, Constitution and America by electing their opponents.
In the upcoming election you will need to decide how to cast your vote. You could do worse than vote for the candidate who was the most respectful of his opponent, the country and the American people. If every American decided that way, we would drive negative campaigning out of the temple of American democracy and purge our national dialogue.
It’s time to kill the beast.
Dr. Smith is a political and social theorist who lives in
Georgetown, Washington, DC
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