Last weekend, my wife and I had our 5-yr-old granddaughter over for dinner. The TV in the great room was on providing background ambiance so that I could watch the big game as I helped Brooklyn do some creative arts and crafts at the kitchen table nearby.
Midway through the first quarter, Brooky looked up at me and asked, “Who do you want to win, Poppy?”
“We live in Denver, Honey, so I’m cheering for the team wearing orange," I replied.
“No, Poppy, not that. Do you want Ommama or that Ronmey man?”
While I was focused on the game, Brooky was consuming the much more vicious battle happening on the large screen we were evidently sharing. At every commercial break, there were at least two or three Presidential campaign ads. And with rare exception, those ads were of the scathing attack variety.
Colorado is a key battleground state that’s currently polling as a virtual toss-up between the two primary Presidential candidates, so both sides are spending record amounts to get their message out. But rather than use the commercial time to highlight their own respective qualifications and future plans, both candidates are hell-bent on trashing the other to frame their opponent as a liar, a cheat, and a scoundrel who is determined to ruin this country and end life as we know it. Even if your state is not a battleground for the Presidency, it’s a certainty that you, too, are exposed to a barrage of campaign ads using similar tactics for the other important elected offices and issues in your state.
Geez, those ads can grate on you; can’t they?
Politics is a dirty business, to be sure, and elections in America have never been warm and fuzzy. Sadly, however, the tone and the tactics of the modern campaign process have been sinking to previously unimagined depths and there appears to be no end in sight.
Through the eyes of a child--or a teen--these brutal mudslinging wars have got to be the most hypocritical thing in the known universe. After all, since their first day in Kindergarten they've been ingrained with the Thumper rule (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.”) When they were mean to one another, we scolded them, spanked them, or put them into a 'time out'. And over the past ten years, Americans have poured millions into anti-bullying causes so that we celebrate the differences they find in other people rather than be critical of them. Who doesn't want children to live in peace and harmony and to grow up and inherit a kinder, more civilized world?
Then about every two years, we allow our airwaves to be overrun with a rude, slanderous and degrading form of bullying that seeks to gut those that dare to run for public office and which ultimately divides the rest of us into red and blue teams that, quite frankly, don't like each other very much. And all of this takes place without much consideration for how all of this ugliness impacts impressionable young minds.
No wonder voter registration among young Americans continues to decline as fast as their distrust for government is rising.
But don't sit there and think that there's nothing you can do. Exercise with your remote, and your vote.
I, for one, am going on a campaign ad fast. From now thru November 6, my wife and I are going to carefully filter all the media that comes into our home and eliminate (i.e. fast forward through) any and all negative campaign ads. We're simply going to act as if Thumper is holding the remote.
That way, regardless of how the election results come in, Brooky will emerge victorious.
SIDE BAR - As a way of relieving negative campaign stress, I've created a series of totally farcical campaign slogans that I've been sharing with my friends and family. There isn't anything of a redeeming value to these idiotic statements; in fact, it only exposes the sophomoric 'class clown' side of my personality.
If your curiosity is piqued, click here.
