Guest AuthorSocial media posts are aflame with comments about this election season. No, not with thoughtful analysis about key positions taken by those seeking office and no, not with commentary on the implications of those positions on our state either.
What seems to bother most are two things. First, there are the unrelenting ads, coming at us on television, radio, billboards and our mailboxes. Second, there’s the negativity and hyperbole of those ads. There are as many complaint postings as there are negative ads.
Candidates, both left and right, D’s and R’s, believe that the more one smears the opponent, the more likely one will win. When both candidates are equally aggressive, then I guess anyone can claim that the negativity works because there’s a winner.
But did the losing candidate lose because of the smear? I open my mail by the kitchen garbage can — quickly perusing the campaign stuff, looking for signs of positivity — a frustrating exercise to be sure.
I was part of a Facebook exchange recently where the original post lamented the “wasteful” spending for mailbox pieces. The person wanted at least one candidate to pledge to stop spending the money on mailings and give it to charity.
Of course, we know that would never happen. No supporter would donate to a candidate who would give the money to charity. However, the concept is a fair one to propose, albeit with a few modifications.
I would suggest finding ways to do two things. First, we should seek out potential candidates long before offices come available. Find people we think would add value to the process, be ethical, and pledge to stay positive during campaigns.
I know this sounds naïve, but how would we really react to a candidate who stated from the beginning there would be no negativity, that the entire campaign would focus on their qualifications, their reasons for running, their character and their vision? Second, stay engaged with those people and support them to the fullest, while calling them out if they strayed to the dark side.
In a recent FB exchange with a political consultant I highly respect, Kirsten Borman, I was reminded of a campaign in Orlando involving the respected Dan Webster, who has “vowed to never use negative attacks and has stayed true to his word.” His opponent and her supporters went very negative, perhaps keeping it closer than it should have been. But Webster won that race and every other race he has had, staying on a positive message.
Perhaps negative campaigning partly closed the gap in this case, but somehow a foothold was made toward positivity. Webster has set an example of what a public servant should be in both comportment and in dedication to honor.
We should not turn our backs on the process and stay away from the polls. Rather, we should raise our expectations and let candidates know that nasty, petty, hyperbolic attacks are not acceptable.
Otherwise, we will remain captive to the barrage of attack ads. Kirsten said it well, “Nasty, hyperbolic attacks are dragging our political process down and making elections unbearable. However, THEY WORK. I frankly get so tired of people complaining about the ‘nasty, awful, wasteful’ ads every 2 years… and doing nothing about it. It becomes almost engrained in our October-small talk as American citizens… and yet it’s our own doing. Complaining is just more hot air. STOP voting for the people who use them. RUN for office pledging to do something about it. SUPPORT candidates to run who will behave differently.”
What I would like to see is more vision and less derision; candidates standing for something rather than just against the opponent; and mailers that speak to plans and what the future might hold. Proving negative campaigns work is easy when everyone is using them.
The assumption always is it worked for the winner — but what did it do for the loser or for us? Positive vision is so much better.
We must demand better. Until then we get what we both expect and deserve. Until then, I prefer to stay naive.
Ed H. Moore, President of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida, writes and lives in Tallahassee. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
