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What is your reaction when viewing TV, listening to the radio or surfing digital platforms and there is a political ad filled with false and misleading information that you can neither verify nor confirm?
Billions of dollars are spent in a national election cycle. Millions of those dollars are spent by candidates and ballot-measure campaigns to saturate traditional and social media with a barrage of negative, false and misleading ads.
How much better and more beneficial it would be if those dollars were spent on messages that help educate voters about the issues, what is at stake and specific actions needed for a remedy — instead of the perennial platitudes and often what turns out to be empty promises.
In Missouri during this midterm election cycle, two hotly contested amendments are on the ballot, and campaigns have raised nearly $40 million for ads to persuade voters. Millions are also being spent in candidate campaigns for state legislative and congressional seats.
As you are bombarded with these ads, are you able to distinguish fact from fiction; truth from distortions, deceptions or lies; vacuous promises from attainable goals?
A mixed bag of campaign ads is airing in city, county and state elections across the country.
What a gross disservice to a public seeking accurate information to make an informed decision about who can best represent them or how best to vote on a proposed ballot measure.
It is little wonder that the average citizen thinks our election process has become a misleading contrivance, a necessary performative evil. Sadly, many, not knowing where the truth lies, choose to dismiss, ignore or do nothing.
This perception and resignation are doing more harm than good.
The body politic affects our lives in all its aspects — from where our children go to school, to what money is left from our paycheck to improve our standard of living, to the quality and bacteria-free food we put on our tables for our loved ones to eat.
If one just stops to think, it becomes abundantly clear that approved ballot measures and decisions made by politicians every day, at every level of government, are eventually felt in our daily lives. There are few, if any, exceptions.
Too often, we as citizens do not want to have anything to do with it. What is allowed in terms of false, distorted and negative advertising during campaigns is a travesty, an insult to democracy and the fullness of its meaning and our intelligence.
More and more in the current political environment, it seems that anything goes.
Unfortunately, with the behavior of our elected officials — and now candidates on the campaign trail in this midterm election year — whenever we hear the word politics, any one of a number of things comes to mind: the grandiose promises candidates make to get elected or reelected to office, only to forget or ignore those same promises once in office; or the leveraged influence that gets concessions and benefits from governmental entities at the average citizen’s expense.
Look at the political action committees (PACs) and their ability to put millions of dollars into a campaign to influence the outcome, often using negative and false political ads — all to promote or preserve a special interest or agenda.
These practices are further confounded by the constant parade of elected officials lured by the temptation to line their own pockets and those of their friends and family, or who insist on indulging in unethical and unsavory behavior.
Whatever impressions the average citizen holds, many are negative because of the behavior of elected officials at all levels of government, exemplified first by the campaigns that got them there.
The bad or evil deeds of the few, too often, overshadow the silence and tolerance of the majority.
When the great Greek philosopher Plato wrote the seminal book “The Republic” on government and the role of citizens in governing, politics was not only an honorable and patriotic process, but it also represented the heart and soul of a healthy society.
Politics meant those active deliberations, sometimes vigorous and lively discussions, among citizens who diligently searched to determine and promote the greatest good for the greatest number with each policy decision made.
The United States is a republic. What say we?
Two things are fundamentally different in our country today and are mirrored at all levels of government.
First, as the population increases, citizens’ interest and participation in the welfare of their government decrease. Fewer people bother to vote. Many of us cannot tell who our city, state or national elected officials are.
Second, consistently low voter turnout represents the feeling of powerlessness and unconcern on the part of many of us. Somehow, too many citizens feel that their involvement or vote will not make much of a difference anyway.
This deep-seated feeling of impotence, if not helplessness, is the most insidious and potentially harmful trend of all — particularly for those who are already at a disadvantage economically, socially and educationally.
The consequences of nonparticipation in politics and the political process are grave and lasting.
Many elected officials do not feel obliged to represent, protect or fight for the interests of those who bother to cast a vote, let alone those who do not.
The critical question in the upcoming elections is: Can we afford to continue to be spectators rather than participants, irrespective of how disgusting some aspects of the process have become?
Our political process is increasingly sliding to a place where negativity and incivility reign.
We can’t cut it out.
Our apathy or disenchantment with it will not make it go away.
Then isn’t our only viable alternative to get involved and influence it?
Not succumb to the negativity, but rise above and defeat it.
This article was originally published by Missouri Independent and is republished by MetroSTL under a Creative Commons license. The reporting is the outlet’s; please support them.