ah, the smell of blood...
So I was watching that Sunday Morning News show, what is it? Meet the Press? Whatever, it's the one with Tim Russert. And the only reason I caught it is because it repeats sometimes really late on Monday mornings/Sunday nights. So the mid-term elections are tomorrow, so of course that's what they're talking about. They bring up mud-slinging, because that's as much of a staple of elections as anything is, and some guy says "but haven't you ever noticed that when Democrats run negative ads, they attack the issues, and when Republican's run negative ads it's a personal attack?" And I go... huh. He's so not wrong.
It's an oversimplification to be sure, but for the most part, for the majority of the negative ads, he's right. Democrats make ads that scare you into thinking your congressman/senator/president is the devil because of issues he hasn't done right, and Republicans do the same by making you think they're a bad person. I can't decide which is worse, quite honestly, because neither of them are working off of the whole truth. The ad will concentrate on the one time Candidate X voted "NO" on this Big Issue, but they won't tell you why or how many times that same candidate voted "YES" on the same issue. Maybe there was a rider, maybe they geniuinely changed their mind, maybe they voted no because they didn't think it was severe enough. Another ad might say your senator made a call to a 900 number and it wound up on the business bill and the tax payers paid for it... what they don't tell you is that it was a misdial, and the candidate was on that 900 number call for less than a minute, charging the public all of $1.25. (I believe these were both New Jersey ads, I'm not sure, but they talked about them on the show).
I've never made that connection though, and that's really sad because if you think the Presidential elections generate a lot of negative ads, why don't you come around Louisiana the months surrounding an election. Trust me, the nationwide mudslinging is WAYYYY less than the inhouse Louisiana Politics mudslinging we're forced to suffer through. Honestly, I'm glad I'm so damn busy that I don't have time to watch TV all that much, because it's enough to make you want to barf and give up on politics altogether. Now that I think about it though, it's true... at least of our politicians. Honestly, it's not even lesser of the evils for us, it's like... which one will hurt us the quickest and fastest and then leave us alone the longest until the next time. There is exactly ONE person in the Louisiana political game that I actually have respect for and that's Bobby Jendal.
Honest to god? This is how I choose who to vote for in the in-state elections: Whose mudslinging techniques disgusted me the least? Who used images of children the least (I swear to god, any politician that reverts to using children for their own political gain does NOT get my respect)? Who threatened the senior citizens the least? Who made me want to hurl my tv across the room the least? THAT's how I choose. though, a few years ago when Jendal ran against Blanco, I don't believe he used even one negative ad, and if he did it wasn't ugly or aggressivve or threatening, and it was about the issues, the TRUE ones... hence why he's the only politician I actually respect. Well, that and the fact that after Katrina, Jendal actually got shit done while Blanco was sitting on her fat ass crying in front of the mic.
I wish I could find some political ads for you to watch and gawk at how ugly and horrific they are. Since I can't find any, I'll just refer you to Kathleen Blanco and say "That? That's pretty representative of our political spectrum." Thank you, Katrina, for giving me a recognizable icon like that.
You want to know what's kind of funny? Louisiana is notoriously known as a Red State right? Us rednecks down here, we vote for the Republicans all the time. Except we don't. I've never gotten why our senate/congress/mayer/governor are almost always majority democrat, but we as a state vote republican for president. I don't get it. Do the conservatives just stay home unless it's the presidential election year? Because that's just really sad.
Ah, Louisiana politics. Ass Backwards doesn't even cover it. Hello, Edwin Edwards. Hello, David Duke. Hello, Jimmy Swaggart (yes, a preacher, but if you think LA politics isn't steeped in religion then you just don't know anything about LA politics). We're so classy.
It's an oversimplification to be sure, but for the most part, for the majority of the negative ads, he's right. Democrats make ads that scare you into thinking your congressman/senator/president is the devil because of issues he hasn't done right, and Republicans do the same by making you think they're a bad person. I can't decide which is worse, quite honestly, because neither of them are working off of the whole truth. The ad will concentrate on the one time Candidate X voted "NO" on this Big Issue, but they won't tell you why or how many times that same candidate voted "YES" on the same issue. Maybe there was a rider, maybe they geniuinely changed their mind, maybe they voted no because they didn't think it was severe enough. Another ad might say your senator made a call to a 900 number and it wound up on the business bill and the tax payers paid for it... what they don't tell you is that it was a misdial, and the candidate was on that 900 number call for less than a minute, charging the public all of $1.25. (I believe these were both New Jersey ads, I'm not sure, but they talked about them on the show).
I've never made that connection though, and that's really sad because if you think the Presidential elections generate a lot of negative ads, why don't you come around Louisiana the months surrounding an election. Trust me, the nationwide mudslinging is WAYYYY less than the inhouse Louisiana Politics mudslinging we're forced to suffer through. Honestly, I'm glad I'm so damn busy that I don't have time to watch TV all that much, because it's enough to make you want to barf and give up on politics altogether. Now that I think about it though, it's true... at least of our politicians. Honestly, it's not even lesser of the evils for us, it's like... which one will hurt us the quickest and fastest and then leave us alone the longest until the next time. There is exactly ONE person in the Louisiana political game that I actually have respect for and that's Bobby Jendal.
Honest to god? This is how I choose who to vote for in the in-state elections: Whose mudslinging techniques disgusted me the least? Who used images of children the least (I swear to god, any politician that reverts to using children for their own political gain does NOT get my respect)? Who threatened the senior citizens the least? Who made me want to hurl my tv across the room the least? THAT's how I choose. though, a few years ago when Jendal ran against Blanco, I don't believe he used even one negative ad, and if he did it wasn't ugly or aggressivve or threatening, and it was about the issues, the TRUE ones... hence why he's the only politician I actually respect. Well, that and the fact that after Katrina, Jendal actually got shit done while Blanco was sitting on her fat ass crying in front of the mic.
I wish I could find some political ads for you to watch and gawk at how ugly and horrific they are. Since I can't find any, I'll just refer you to Kathleen Blanco and say "That? That's pretty representative of our political spectrum." Thank you, Katrina, for giving me a recognizable icon like that.
You want to know what's kind of funny? Louisiana is notoriously known as a Red State right? Us rednecks down here, we vote for the Republicans all the time. Except we don't. I've never gotten why our senate/congress/mayer/governor are almost always majority democrat, but we as a state vote republican for president. I don't get it. Do the conservatives just stay home unless it's the presidential election year? Because that's just really sad.
Ah, Louisiana politics. Ass Backwards doesn't even cover it. Hello, Edwin Edwards. Hello, David Duke. Hello, Jimmy Swaggart (yes, a preacher, but if you think LA politics isn't steeped in religion then you just don't know anything about LA politics). We're so classy.