Jesi asked:
After listening to a friend whine this weekend about how turned off they are to dirty politics she expressed that she didn’t want to go out and vote for either candidate. That made me wonder if that is an intended consequence of the dirty politics, to keep the uncommitted voters away from the polls. Each party knows they have a following of 40% of the voters, leaving about 20% undecided. The negative ads dont convince a dedicated Republican to vote Democratic and vice versa, but it may convince them not to vote at all.
If each candidate keeps the independent voters away and chips into the opposing candidate’s base of voters they may win by attrition. Is this an intended or just a consequential goal of the negative politics?
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{ 8 comments }
I think you are right about that. But maybe it is not realized, just subconscious?
There you have it. The goal is to get their supporters to the poles while disgusting the undecided so much that they just stay home.
It is a desperate trick some very obvious Republicans are trying out.They have nothing left to lose.
As one Republican put. “I just want the Republicans to win so I can keep thumbing my nose at the Democrats”.
Typical,but now they’re power sliming the Democrats.No vote is better than a Dem vote,they believe.
And yes,that type of hate went against EVERYTHING our Founding Fathers stood for.
Yes it is common practice. One party does it much more often than the other party because they can get away with it. They get away with it because they have the media packed away snuggly in thier back pocket.
what would u do if ur one the politician……..
politics and curruption are synonyms……..thats my personal view
No, I think it’s to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Like you said, each party has 40%, compared to 20% “undecideds.” Nothing is more important than “rallying the base,” as we’ve certainly seen lately – and you don’t do that by playing nice or even fair.
One of my friends asked a similar question the other day – why doesn’t somebody run a campaign with so smear tactics, no name-calling etc? The answer is that it obviously doesn’t work. The people running campaigns know what they’re doing. If nice guys finished first, they’d all be nice, but it’s pretty clear that they don’t.
I see it as a consequence and not as a common goal. Higher voter turnout has long been though to favor Democrat candidates and low voter turnout favors Republicans.
Yet, both sides are dominated by dirty politics, mudslinging, and generally negative campaigns. Democrats, I guess, suppose that some of their fringe voter base might be stimulated to vote by such chilidish behavior. Republicans are more dedicated voters, so they are less likely to be affected by campaign style.
Personally, I think that either party could be helped by establishing a positive campaign style. The political handlers, speech writers, and spin doctors obviously disagree. It appears they know more about the political nature of humans than I do. At least they get the big bucks for their opinions. I just get YA points. d:c)
This sounds like a situation ripe for an independent.