Mudslinging
VIEWPOINT
By RALPH HARDIN
Evening Times Editor H ang in there, folks. We are less than three weeks away from the 2024 General Election. And that means only three more weeks of political ads.
I have kind of a love-hate relationship with political ads. On the one hand, I do appreciate the effort to inform and educate the voting public about candidates and issues, but man, are some of them more full of bullcrap than a pasture …
I watch Bally Sports Southeast a lot because the Atlanta Braves and the Memphis Grizzlies both have games there throughout the season. That also means I get the privilege of watching a full slate of regional political ads from Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and probably a few others. And let me tell you, no one can make it seem like our very way of life hangs in the balance like a regional congressional race.
“Senator Joe Blow wants to raise your taxes, eat your children and allow mandatory transgender surgery on your puppies. If Senator Joe Blow gets re-elected the hills will run red with the blood of the innocents – paid for by Citizens for a Better Tomorrow.”
Well, I better not vote for that guy. I wonder who his opponent is?
“Bob Smiley puts families first. He wants a Bible in every classroom and a chicken in every pot. He wants to bring down the corruption and child eating in our state and install rainbows in every city. A vote for Bob Smiley is a vote for America – paid for by the Anti-Trans-Puppy Society.”
Oh, well, he sounds fantastic. Oh, wait …
“Bob Smiley will tell you he’s against child eating but that’s just a lie. H was once seen in college with a chicken leg in his mouth – or was it? Bob Smiley is in the pocket of the big corporations and funded by the Bible Hidden Agenda Lobby. What’s really in that pot, Bob Smiley – paid for by the Committee to Keep Babies out of Pots.”
Oh … well, then, maybe vote for … ???
Yeah, that’s a little hyperbolic, but honestly not that much. My current favorite is the Tennessee U.S. Senate race where Sen. Marsha Blackburn is running for re-election. Those TV spots have been running nonstop. And depending on who you support, Marsha Blackburn is either Tennessee’s only hope or will doom Tennessee to rot and ruin.
They even use the same stats: “Marsha Blackburn voted in line with Trump’s agenda 92 percent of the time.” Both pro-Blackburn and anti-Blackburn ads use this factoid. And a couple of things stand out here. One, of course she voted most of the time with the Republican platform … she’s a Republican. Two: Trump hasn’t been in office since January of 2021, so there really isn’t a “Trump agenda” currently. It’s either scare tactics or party baiting, whichever way you look at it.
And I won’t pretend that these mudslinging political antics are anything new. The attacks against Andrew Jackson and his family were so nasty that they basically killed his wife Rachel, who had a stress and anxiety-induced heart attack after being scorched in the newspapers and such for – gasp – having previously been married.
One that I thought was pretty clever was in the runup to the 2000 elections, the two parties were scrambling for control of Congress. One series of ads by the Republican supporters had a voiceover of all the terrible things that could happen if the Democrats had control of things. During the ad, all of these political buzzwords came and went across the screen along with images of these evil Democratic legislators. And right when a couple of prominent Democrats of the day, like maybe Howard Dean and John Kerry, the word “Democrats” scrolled by and just the part that said “rats” was on the screen.
You get it, right? One Arkansas-specific issue that is currently getting the yay/boo treatment is Ballot Issue No. 2. If you’ve somehow missed this battle, it’s over whether or not the voters of Pope County should get to hold an in-county vote on whether or not there should be a casino in Pope County – which is admittedly a lot of hoops to go through.
You see, voters statewide already voted back in 2022 to allow Pope County to have a casino, but it turns out that maybe they don’t actually want one. Well, put it somewhere else, right? Except that for whatever reason (politics) the 2022 law specifically said where the new casinos in Arkansas could go.
So, let them decide! It’s their county. But the state voters have already spoken! Oh, OK then. If they get to vote on it, what’s to stop other counties from demanding to vote on the casinos that are already there? They wouldn’t do that? Why not? What’s the difference? Well, those were statewide votes, right? I don’t know, were they?
Either way both sides think it’s a matter of utmost importance!
