Is Negative Campaigning Good for America?

By the way, I have been in professional sales for 24 years. The kind of sales in which the sales cycle is long, 2 years or so, and you must count on repeat business with the same customer base. I have never figured out how to convince my clients to buy from me by denigrating my competition. I have always thought that my clients were too intelligent to be tricked into making a decision in my favor. I have always thought that I must show the value of my product or service in order for them to decide in my favor.

Apparently, that does not seem to be the case in our current political environment.

William Matthew Pizzolato of CA 6:54PM July 05, 2010

I agree with Elizabeth of Texas. I want an Honest report from the canidate of where they stand on important issues and how they plan to lead this country in a positive way.

Larry of TX 5:25PM July 05, 2010

I won't vote for the clown that does not provide a positive base for his campaign and I tell many people my opinion which sometimes affects theirs. Politicans should straighten up their act and actually plan to hold the honor of the office they have been elected to do and do their job.

Pat Hall of VA 4:53PM July 05, 2010

As an effort to intimidate an opponent, there is nothing like a good scandal, or negative campaign ad to deter endorsement; it even works for remote endorsement.

But for the nation, who wants to invest in a nation that is so foolishly inept as to allow itself to be swayed by every scandal, every negative attack, etc. If reputations are important, and they most surely are in politics, reputations built upon fear, scandal, intimidation, and coercion are among the worst that America distributes globally.

For those who follow America, or model themselves after it, are we not our own worst enemy, by sewing what we then reap from other nations?

Shooting oneself in the foot isn't common sense; in fact, it is anything but common sense that focuses upon the relationship between cause and result.

Ignoring our own flaws, or disguising them as advantages, or benefits, doesn't work either because the method lacks credibility, and hence, the candidate using them lacks credibility, however popular he, or she, may be.

Elections may never be totally honest in that they are always manipulated events by a plethora of campaign managers some of whom are, at least, civic minded, rather than self-aggrandizing. Those that are tend to be "outed" rather quickly by the openness with which Americans conduct their campaigns. That is not to say that Americans can go overboard in their zeal and become far too zealous in their attempt to discredit a candidate. The balance between free speech and malignment is sometimes very narrow, and most of it is pure judgment and opinion. How much is fact never seems to make the airwaves since, in many cases, accusations are enough to destroy political careers.

Yellow journalism, war mongering, and such have a long history in American independence as far back as Alexander Hamilton and the history of dueling; who knows what existed before that time, even in our European heritage nations from whence we all came? Chances are it did not arrive on American soil spontaneously. It may well have had an even longer history in those nations from whence we all came.

When Americans make value judgments upon the limits of negative campaigns that they be truthful and honest, however devastating it may be to a candidate, they are making a value judgment, and providing a healing process to nations of other lands who may also suffer under the weight of such damaging frivolity, and self-serving political destruction.

If America is to be a model, she must be a model with a measure of well considered self discipline rather than falling victim to market typhology that ruins lives, or she will have earned her reputation as leaderless, and valueless in a system of freedom that permits predatory capitalism and an anything goes philosophy, as long as it produces money and profits.

The world would be free, and indeed, encouraged to view America as insignificant ruffians hell bent on personal if not national destruction.

Pat Ross of MA 11:50AM July 14, 2009