If you’ve watched TV at all in the past month, you’ve been inundated with negative ads, from both parties. Like most voters, I find these ads to be generally distasteful and counterproductive in elevating the national discourse. However, this year the ads have gone from simply being negative, to downright fear-mongering.
Last week, the Republican National Committee (RNC) released an ad entitled, “The Stakes.” This ad can still be found of their Web site: www.gop.com. The ad, which contains no audio aside from the sound of a ticking clock, features slow, grainy footage of Osama bin Laden and other terrorists presumably training for terrorism. Imposed over the pictures are textual quotations of the horror they wish to inflict. The ad concludes by saying, “These are the stakes. Vote November 7th” before adding the requisite, “The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.”
This type of political fear-mongering has no place in our country. Beyond the fact that I find it morally reprehensible to further a political agenda in such a fashion, this type of negativity doesn’t fool intelligent voters. And furthermore, we should not overlook the irony of using the threat of terrorism (definition: the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes) to create a sense of fear in an effort to swing the electorate for the Republican Party. It’s not going to work. People who have paid attention over the past six years have seen this type of smoke-and-mirrors politics from the Bush administration before. This year’s vote will not be determined by fear or slander. It will be determined by the issues and by the record the Republican Party has accumulated since 2000.
This unfortunate trend of slanderous misrepresentation has not been isolated to propagating the fear of terror. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn., is running against incumbent Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn. The RNC placed an ad insinuating that Ford has taken money from pornographers. It even goes so far as to imply that Ford has engaged in interracial sexual indiscretion. Even Corker has called the RNC’s ad outrageous.
In Missouri, Michael J. Fox has placed an ad for Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease, once again makes an appeal for stem-cell research, while shaking uncontrollably due to his condition. The response from the right was not to discuss the merits of this groundbreaking medical advancement, but instead, Rush Limbaugh responded by saying that Fox was, “either off his medication or acting.” A claim that Fox and Dr. John Boockvar of Weill Cornell Medical Center at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital called “ludicrous.”
In New York, the RNC placed an ad claiming that Democratic Candidate, former District Attorney Mike Arcuri, called a sex-talk line on the taxpayer’s tab. A serious claim by all accounts, if it were true. What actually happened was that in 2004 a staffer for Arcuri called (800) 457-8462, a legitimate sex-talk line. The call lasted an entire seven seconds and cost $1.50. Less than one minute later the staffer redialed the correct number, (518) 457-8462, the number for the Albany County Department of Criminal and Justice Services.
It’s appalling and devastating to see that the RNC and this administration have chosen to manipulate truth and cultivate fear in a last ditch effort to maintain power. Perhaps if Republicans had spent the last six years working on bettering our country rather than slandering their opposition, they’d be able to run a campaign based on their record of achievement instead of distortions.
We, as Democrats, choose to lead from hope, not fear. We seek to govern by embracing what is best in our nation to serve the common good. We will be tested, for sure, but America will not be defined by our trials and our tragedies. Rather, we will define ourselves by our ideas and our optimism. That is the legacy of the Democratic Party.
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