Political Ads

Like everyone else who lives in America, I'm not what you would consider a "fan" of political ads. They're just a bunch of ranting about misleading subjects designed to get you to hate a person enough to not vote for him or her. Republicans and Democrats are both guilty of this. Also, the ads tend to be full of stuff that's just not true (again, both parties are guilty of this). I especially like the Al Franken ad that says something to the effect of, "Only one candidate in this election has never voted for a congressional pay raise - Al Franken." Well, to my knowledge, Franken has never been in congress, so he's never HAD the opportunity to vote for a congressional pay raise, so of course he hasn't voted for one! That's like me saying, "Joel Detlefsen has never voted for a congressional pay raise." You'd think I'm an idiot because I've never had the chance to vote for such a thing. Also, Dean Barkley, the Independent candidate was only in congress for something like eight days - did he vote for a pay raise in that amount of time, and if so, why? He wouldn't be around to enjoy it. You see, political ads are just dumb.

This political season introduced me to Ashwin Madia, a democrat who's running against Eric Paulsen for a seat in congress. Before this election season, I've never heard of Ashwin Madia, but republican ads would have me believe that he is a liar, and a worthless human being. I'm sorry, but I can't make that judgment simply by a 30 second TV spot! I can understand negative campaigning, but trying to persuade people to feel angst against someone they've never met (or heard of until a month ago) seems pretty wrong to me.

My wife commented tonight that she can't wait until Wednesday, because all of the political ads will be off the air. That got me thinking: if the political ads are true, and these people are the lowest scum on the face of the earth, and they represent us in congress, shouldn't they be running all year long? If these people really are as bad as the ads say they are, isn't that worth reporting to us in February and March, even if it's not an election year? Lying is lying, and stealing is stealing, whether it's an election year or not. The whole political system is extremely screwed up - your own politicians, whether you're a republican or democrat - only think it's important to report the evil of their opponents to you when their own butt is on the line. In other words, they'll only speak out against what's wrong and stand up for what's right when they need YOU to re-elect them. The rest of the time, they're just as guilty as the people they're railing against. Something is very screwed up with that line of thinking, and it needs to stop. Remember that the next time you think about making a campaign contribution.