If he’s not ready, are we ready?
The negative political ads have started. Before we decide to vote for any candidate, we need to determine whether we, the voters, are ready to determine who should be elected to these offices.
Before long we will be inundated with a barrage of idiotic political ads testing, and often insulting, our intelligence.
If we, in any way, let these ridiculous ads affect our voting patterns and preferences, then we will get the kind of intellectually corrupt and self-serving MPs we deserve.
We need to watch for the tricks and treacheries that will be presented to us on a daily basis through the media. There will be ads smearing the character of the various leaders, without at all identifying the policy or policies the head of these political parties will promote, if elected.
There will be ads with actors portraying everyday citizens telling us in staged coffee shop settings to be aware of the hidden agenda of a politician and his or her party. These are all intended to disarm us from questioning the dubious message of the ad and to cause us to focus our attention away from clear policy statements.
There will be parodies parading as realities. There will be ads showing a mistake or blooper made by a politician and then elevating this to the status of an event supposedly typically identifying this individual politician’s ineptness or incompetence.
All this drama is portrayed without any reference to the successful or failing policy decisions or programs of this particular politician’s political party.
This approach tries to convince us that the exceptional is the typical, that a non-typical gaff is typical of an entire political policy. A great example of this trend is the ad focusing on the theme “He’s not ready.” This is an example of a promotional ad without substance, without any reasonable support, without any evidence or facts to support it. It is biased opinion framed as innuendo with negative suggestions. Actors are portrayed as if they are making a thoughtful decision on a hiring committee, when their words and content, “nice hair,” for example, are incredibly stupid and shallow.
As voters, we make predictions about the party members and party policies we decide to elect. These predictions are only as good as the evidence we have when making our decision.
We should avoid the situation of those who “are not ready” to make an informed vote, those who rely on deceptive political junk ads. We need an informed vote.
It is time to question the integrity, honesty and ability of any party that promotes deceptive, misleading and intelligently demeaning corrupt ads to promote their simply getting re-elected. Their re-election aspirations are only to gain or to continue in a job that (a) pays a good salary, (b) offers a good benefit package and (c) provides a generous pension for life.
There is no vision or leadership in serving the interests of others or the country.
We need honest, trustworthy, transparent politicians, which we might get by denying the unscrupulous ones any credibility for their non-informative, demeaning and voter-intelligence-insulting ads.
Are we ready to put the effort into focusing on policy statements, political decisions and actions, and on a party that displays integrity in all that it does, including its ad campaigns?
Jim Gough
Red Deer