A storm is coming, and it will hit Colorado harder than anywhere in the country.
In a few short months, a barrage of opponent-bashing political TV advertisements will hit TV screens across Colorado as it does every year. If you can’t stand these political attack ads, you’re not alone. According to a 2014 Gallup poll, most Americans have a “sour view” of political advertising, and 69 percent say they believe little to nothing they see in political ads.
Coloradans have it worse than most Americans. Denver was the biggest digital media market for political ads in 2014, and its 59 percent negativity rating was one of the highest in the ountry.
Most of us have learned to expect the flood of backbiting political ads around election season and just accept them as par for the course. But why should we? Negative political advertisements are detrimental to our society, succeeding only in hindering us from overcoming the great challenges we face.
It’s difficult to overstate the appalling condition of American politics today. Voters are becoming more polarized on almost every issue, growing increasingly distrustful of their government in general, as well as the gridlocked politicians who claim to represent them. And to top it all off, voter turnout is the lowest it has been since World War II.
Something needs to change.
Studies on the effects of negative political advertisements have produced conflicting results, but they agree on a few things: Negative political ads increase viewers’ distrust in government and feelings of political inefficacy. Also, viewers do not think that negative ads provide any useful information or that they discuss important policy issues.
Now, I’m not advocating a ban on political ads with a negative message; a ban on criticizing politicians or laws sounds too much like “V for Vendetta” for my liking. But we should put rules in place to limit negative political ads.
I would start with these three.
1.Repeal Citizens United.
Since its signing in 2010, Citizens United has done nothing to unite or empower the vast majority of Americans; rather, it has allowed unions, corporations, other groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections, giving them an unimaginable level of influence on American politics. Want proof? Non-party outside groups’ spending on the 2012 election tripled that of 2008, topping $1 billion, $600 million of that coming from super-PACs. And according to a study published in Marketing Science, as a candidate’s budget increases, so does the negativity in his or her advertising.
2.Limit TV political ads to one month before Election Day.
If we want to build trust and close the gap that many Americans feel between themselves and their politicians, we cannot have politicians constantly bombarding voters with self-serving, often negative advertisements. Besides, a UCLA and George Washington study found that political ads are only effective for a short time, when shown right before voters take to the polls.
3.Mandate that candidates (and supporting organizations) must produce more positive ads than negative ones.
Measured either by number of ads or by run-time, candidates should spend more time talking about what they will do and who they are than they spend bashing their opponent’s policies or perceived lack of character.
A house divided against itself cannot stand. If we want to progress as a society and overcome the significant challenges we face today — environmental pollution, racial tension, economic inequality, and more — we need to work to break down the partisanship and gridlock in our local, state, and federal governments and focus on finding solutions to these problems, not on tearing each other apart.
These three laws would not fix American politics, but they would curb rampant negative political advertisements fueled by big-dollar Super-PAC lobbyists, and I believe that is a step in the right direction.
Nathan Eagan is a resident of Fort Collins who currently attends Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., where he majors in marketing.
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