I alluded to offensive ads in my last post. They still bother me. I've gotten pretty quick with the mute button whenever I see them come on--a practice that briefly solidifies my sanity. As with most things, it's not really the words that bother me, it's the principle. I'm even (mostly) okay with attack ads as attack ads, but such tactics should never be used as campaign propaganda.
Elections should be a battle of ideals and plans. As a nation, we're in some trouble. So, who has the best ideas to help up get out of the rut we've been digging for a decade? Each candidate has an answer that distills the solutions for intensely complicated problems into ten-second sound bites. Barring some fabulous exception I've not seen, that sound bite, by definition, is a half-truth. I only like full truths.
Everyone has flaws. Everyone. I don't mind my politicians having flaws. I don't really care what company they kept 20 years ago. I don't care if they inhaled. I don't care about their kids. I don't care about their marriages. In my mind, a person if free to do pretty much whatever the hell strikes their fancy without having to worry about offering a formal apology and dodging the judgments of talking heads or the Schmo family. However, the single trait I demand from public officials, even though I so rarely get it, is honesty. Thus, sound bites and campaign ads offend me.
Obama's health care ad that pawns the death of his mother for some public sympathy (which can then be pawned off for support) angers me in a way more often reserved for movie talkers and infants in nice restaurants. His mother died of cancer. That's sad, but so what? She worried about medical bills. So does everyone else in the hospital for any length of time; why does this matter? I understand the intent here, but it falls on callous, disinterested ears. He's handsome though, so he can get away with it.
Even if I believed universal health care was a good idea right now, that ad would really stretch my dedication. It's not quite dishonest, but one should never use personal tragedy to drum up support for an idea. Good ideas, really good ideas, can stand up all by themselves.
McCain has also earned my ire, but it's less focused than my feelings toward Obama. Both candidates have fallen into the trap of negative campaign ads. This mud-slinging is an affront to everything the elections are supposed to mean. First and foremost, these elections should be aimed at choosing the best-qualified person for the job. Instead, these ads force us to choose the least-offensive candidate. The thrust of most of the commercials I've seen is "The other guy is worse than I am" rather than "I am the best choice" as it should be, and it bothers me to no end.
My last entry was a plea to voters. This one is a plea to candidates. Stop being so damn lazy with your campaigning. Don't bother explaining why I shouldn't vote for someone. Prove to me that you deserve my vote. What I want is more a shift in emphasis than a change in content, but it is important nonetheless. We tout ourselves as the greatest nation on the planet and take pride in our democratic processes, but that is no reason to stop striving for better.
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