After reading an article that I will post at the bottom of this blog entry, I began to wonder if negative campaigning is losing effectiveness or has it become a fundamental component of the GOP. This article suggested that the GOP has become fixated with the art of smear campaigns. So much so that they have failed to tell us what they are for, only what they are against. Is this just a part of the political fear tactic? In order for a vote to be achieved, the constituency must "need" you. I order for them to need you, fear must be cast onto the general public. That fear is theoretically sparked by these smear campaigns the GOP has become so accustomed to running. Studies have been done that say negative ads while more memorable, do not tend to change voting outcomes. Then why run them?
To me, this just doesn't seem very democratic. What happened to representing the people? But, you can represent them without their vote. I pray there is a day when we can return to voting for people for who they are and what they've done, instead of who they're not.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-watts/gop-negative-campaigning_b_4979956.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-negative-political-ads-work/
Interesting post! I feel like all I see are smear campaigns and ads. That is basically what I write about the most on my blog. Just today, Trump posted a video saying how horrible Obama is doing with the refugee issue. There was a lot more said, that can instill fear into people, and like you said, make them think they “need” Trump. Personally, I would be much more attractive to a candidate if they weren’t constantly bad-mouthing other candidates or being rude, but in reality, it is a good tactic I think. I may not agree with it, but instilling fear into people and making them think that they actually need you, is pretty clever. Overall, I do agree with you that I hope we can return to a day when the American people vote for who the candidates are, rather than what they are not.
ReplyDeleteReally... I like your post, but I am sitting here wondering why you only mentioned the GOP and not the DNC as well. I cannot read this post without thinking about the number of times in which both the GOP and the DNC use smear campaigns against each other as well as against those within their own party. Yes, it is true that smear campaigns take away from the overall candidate, but in reality this is just what our political system has come to.
ReplyDeleteHi Dylan. Interesting post and a thought provoking read. I stand with you in hopes that one day more candidates will position themselves on a platform more heavily based on what they've done and what they plan to do, rather than smearing and discrediting what others have done/plan to do. The fear tactic you mention, influences more people than presenting information in a non-smear tactic strategy. It is becoming more common to see candidate's advertisements present a tone of finger pointing and throwing someone under the bus, rather than a positive hopeful tone with what they themselves bring to the table in regard to the issues at hand.
ReplyDeleteSmear campaigns and general bad mouthing of candidates is a problem we see across the board in politics. These tactics and strategies know no party lines, and until there is a fundamental change in the approach politicians take to utilizing the media for promoting their individual platform rather than to speak negatively of others, we will continue to see the same merry-go-round of advertising campaigns.