Political nonsense

[vakkotaur]

A couple nights ago as jmaynard and I were having supper, we saw a series of political commercials that were unintentionally humorous:

1. Candidate A is lying and wants to do X, unlike candidate B.
2. Candidate B is lying and wants to do Y, unlike candidate A.
3. Candidate A is lying and wants to do X, unlike candidate B.
4. Candidate B is lying and wants to do Y, unlike candidate A.
5. Party A is lying and wants to do V.
6. Party B is lying and wants to do Z.

As if that wasn't enough, both the ads of candidates A and B have been found to be misleading and misrepresentative of the actual case.

The depressing thing is that this is real and not a Monty Python or Saturday Night Live bit.

Comments

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

I know they say things never change, but I am noticing this trend: politicians are no longer leaders. They all seem to be slaves of their party heads, who are perhaps the stupidest people in the country, because they never spend time around real, working people.

We need a solid third party to give the status quo a big whack upside the head, let them know that we're fond of Tweelde-Dee Tweedle-Dum government anymore.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

What I want is something sort of between the Libertarians and the older economic conservatism of the Republican party. Mostly hands off of everything, but realizing that that there are times and places where a just a bit of regulation (not much!) is needed to keep things honest. The problem seems to be that as each level of government claims it is needed to keep the level(s) under it honest, that level itself grabs more power for itself, with the usual results: power corrupts.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Funny how that works.

[yakko.livejournal.com]

This of course makes me glad I don't watch TV. Not that I'd use those ads as a basis for casting my vote...

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

What TV I do watch is mostly when I'm on the treadmill now, and I make good use of the mute button on the remote control. This time my hands were rather full as supper was rather messy (a rare occurrence of fried chicken) and thus we got "treated' to this series of ads. By the time I was ready to mute them, it was too late as we were both laughing at the whole thing.

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

Reason #812 I'm glad I"m not an American.

The last time any of our political ads anywhere near approached the nasty negativity yours do (any other Canucks out there remember the "Facial paralysis ad" bru-ha-ha from I think the 1993 election?) our public was in such an outcry over it apologies were immediately issued (as we Canadians like to do), even though the slur was only *implied*, and nothing close has been seen again.

(I'm also thankful for simulcasting, when I'm watching an American program that's being broadcast at the same time on a Canadian network, the Canadian feed airs, no matter which station my dial is pointed to. This means my intake of American ads is very small (I think I've seen less than half a dozen this campaign, not counting the replaying in the news about the Tennessee one that "blames Canada".)

Oh, and Vakko, thanks for not going the logical route with point 5. and saying "5. Party A is lying and wants to do W." :)

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I very carefully avoided using the letter 'W' for this, for that very reason.

As for nasty ads, I suspect the all-time low blow of U.S. political ads was the infamous Daisy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKs-bTL-pRg) ad of 1964.