"Republicans Target 3 Senate Races"

[JohnMK]

FOXNews.com - Republicans Target 3 Senate Races - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum

WASHINGTON — In an unusual move, the Republican National Committee is investing heavily in television advertising in Senate races in Ohio, Tennessee and Missouri in what officials describe as a firewall strategy designed to limit Democratic gains in the Nov. 7 elections and maintain the GOP majority.

I confess some disturbance upon reading this article. Freedom of speech is a fundamental right which should be trepassed every so rarely and gingerly, so my disgust was of some surprise to me. Please help me hone this into something more rational.

Campaign ads tend to work, both positive and negative. You can present something without context and enough people don't really seem to care that "the rest of the story..." might paint a different shade. Enough people that 49% might indeed become 51%, which naturally in America means 0% and 100%. As such I would say many campaign ads are bordering upon lying, if you define that to include leaving out pertinent context. Something as fundamental as democracy, which depends upon an educated electorate to be run well, I'm quite willing to make that definitional leap.

Those most likely to be influenced by ads are probably rather impressionable and not well-informed. Capitalizing on that very fact, to produce a one percentile national change to tip the balance in your favor, in three states, that effectively gives you a measure of control over the rest of the states (should your plan succeed) that you didn't seek to "share the truth" with -- seems on the face of it to be quite malicious and utterly disrespectful of the electorate and democracy itself. I think the practice should end, if not by legal measure than by pangs of conscience.

Please tell me your thoughts.

[Chris]

I like this ad -I just saw it today

- New Thinking


But I see your point. On the same hand, you have people - who will never see an ad, but will be influenced by some other means And you have all kinds of people voting who have no business voting. Vote fraud everywhere.

Depressing, but what can you do?