Thank you, Reason magazine and ReasonTV for pointing out that while negative ads may not be something to celebrate, they are certainly not new and that anybody who has done any kind of half-serious reading of American history knows that mudslinging was much, much worse 200 years ago than it is today.
The next time some sanctimonious boob gets the vapors after watching a negative ad, please send them the link to this video:
I suspect most hand-wringing about negative ads comes from people whose candidates/political parties/issues are losing.
Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, when you’re behind, negative political ads seem to abound but when you’re winning, Well, those aren’t negative ads — they’re simply the truth! Yeah, right.
It’s a similar reaction to those who are horrified by anti-Obama signs and posters and say we are awash in what they call a “climate of hate.”
I’m not saying it’s a nice thing to put a Hitler moustache on an Obama photo but it seems the same folks who decry such over-the-top demonstrations were oddly silent when the word “BushHitler” was thrown about with great aplomb from 2000-2008:
Or when a major publishing company (Alfred A. Knopf) released a novel (Checkpoint by Nicholson Baker) in which the protagonist sets out to assassinate George W. Bush:
Or when a movie is released called “Death of a President” with this photo-shopped poster:
Or, if you didn’t get the point, this poster:
And that movie wins the International Film Critics Award at the Toronto Film Festival.
Can anyone credibly refute that if the president depicted had been Barack Obama instead of George W. Bush,
A) there would be a firestorm,
B) it would be the chief topic of news on every major network and metropolitan newspaper in the country
C) the the film distributors would have been forced to defend themselves tooth and nail against critics and political allies of the President wanting to prevent release of the movie?
D) and that would have been the last that anyone would have heard of the Toronto Film Festival?
I’m not calling for tit-for-tat political abuse.
What I am saying is that if you call for civility in political discourse, have the honesty and political integrity to be even-handed.