In this year’s election, barely a positive word has been spoken whilst the attacks, both personal and policy-wise have flooded the airwaves. Admittedly it’s easier to attack rather than defend when in the political arena but when you look at the gradual increase of negative ads election after election, it becomes rather disheartening that people have less and less positive things to say.
What I find most shocking about the graph above is that during this election, it is the Obama camp who has gone most negative. Sure, there is certainly a lot to attack the Republicans on, but with only a measly 14% of his ads being positive it seems like Democrats dont have that much to boast about.
I dont know why really. They can celebrate the Affordable Care Act, the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the auto-industry bailout to name just a few. Then again, when you can make attacks about rape panels, tax evasion, social security cuts it can be awfully tempting to do so.
When you’re in the middle of a mud flinging contest, your only real option is to fling more mud than your opponent in the hope that by the end of the fight, your opponent has a thicker layer of mud encrusted on them than you do.
I fear that the 2016 election will be even more negative, but I seriously cant see how much more negative the two parties can get without completely turning off the electorate. Whilst political junkies like myself enjoy the mud slinging, the average person can quickly get bored of them.