When did it all change regarding elections for political office?

What change am I referring to?  The one in which candidates no longer talk about what they are going to do but rather what’s wrong with their opponents.

There must have been one major election in which a candidate and his staff decided not to bother lying about all the good things they would do if elected.

You know those promises that are made on the campaign trail but rarely ever fulfilled.  We were accustomed to being lied to and almost accepted it as part of the campaign cycle. Heck we actually forgot most of what was promised by the time the person took the oath of office.

At some point in what seems like the recent past the approach changed.

Promises that would never be kept were no longer good enough to get voters in your corner. It just wasn’t juicy enough.  However if I can tell you about all the things that are wrong with my opponent you won’t even care that I have no answers to the problems facing our town, county, state or country (whichever applies).

There had to be that one significant election in which this tactic was not only used but turned out to be successful.

So now what we get are TV and radio commercials, print ads, flyers and even signs that don’t promote the virtue of one candidate but just rip the other to shreds.  It is Negative Campaigning 101 and it’s the direction we have now grown to accept as the norm.

What’s even worse is we can’t separate facts from fiction because the rhetoric and venom being spewed at times makes you believe that some, no actually many of those seeking our vote are just awful people.  There seems to be no accountability as you can say whatever you want whether it’s actually true or not.

It’s our fault this is what’s happening.  We were actually better off just voting for those who we knew were making false promises.

Boy I really miss those days.

 

More From 92.7 WOBM