Quadrennially, Labor Day traditionally marks the final campaign spending push toward the presidential election in November. As of Monday, Sept. 7, there are 57 days until Election Day 2020, meaning not just the campaigns for president but candidates from county supervisor to U.S. senator will be lobbying voters for their votes.
In decades past, campaigns were largely quiet for most of an election year excluding the weeks leading to primary elections. Once nominees were selected at conventions, chosen by delegates or party leadership, they fundraised and laid groundwork for door-knocking, mailers and phone calls to party loyalists hoping to get out the vote on Election Day.
This brief push has since been replaced by a year-long campaign season in which at the start of an election year, candidates begin actively campaigning first for the nomination or re-election, then for the office seat in the general election.
For months, we have seen ads on social media, television, the internet and in print defending incumbents or attacking them on a host of issues.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the advertising as incumbents are attacked for what they did or for not doing enough to protect Americans, slow the spread of the virus or protect the health care of Americans facing the dire consequences of an infection.
The current president made waves by filing for re-election on inauguration day, effectively running for a second term since the start of the first, an act which was unspoken politically — aren’t all election officials acting in ways they hope will get them re-elected? — but not so nakedly and publicly declared.
As goes the White House, so goes Congress and then lower seats, so in all likelihood, this official campaigning for another term at the start of the previous term may become the norm rather than a one-off anomaly.
That said, campaigns will be getting more aggressive in the next 50-plus days hoping to pick up voters who are still on the fence, those who may not want to cast a ballot or those who weren’t aware that this is an election year, perhaps because they were in a coma or on a submarine under the polar ice cap for the last nine months.
It seems as though every election cycle gets meaner and nastier, and this cycle is likely no exception. Voters overwhelming state they dislike attack ads, especially the shady, red-and-black-tinged videos catching candidates in freeze frame with distorted faces and ominous voice-overs claiming voters don’t know the “real” so-and-so.
Spooky.
Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens and independent conservatives and liberals in elected office tend to agree on most things. Even in a hyperpartisan environment, they tend to work together to pass legislation.
There are many things on which they won’t bend for various reasons, but more often than not, the reason they won’t negotiate or compromise is not because of some steel-cast ideology but because they don’t want to be nailed for bending by a primary challenger in the next election cycle. Hence the reason votes need not be unanimous.
Let’s face it, elected officials by and large are not that much different from the rest of us. With few notable exceptions, most are law-abiding civil servants. Certainly there are plenty of candidates who run for office to benefit themselves personally but they often get caught because they aren’t Machiavellian geniuses or find out that the levers of American government have enough safeguards to prevent Third World-level corruption.
Frank and Claire Underwood are so terrifying in “House of Cards” because they are anomalies and not the norm.
With election ads gearing up, consider the messages they convey. Is the ad about the candidate, their achievements and goals or what they might do in office? Or is it just about sowing fear about the opponent? Are the quotes cherry-picked and out of context? Is the data sourced and confirmed by independently verifiable news sources or public record or is it fear-mongering?
As we prepare for Election Day, vote for the candidate you think will be the best person for the job rather than just voting against the candidate you’ve been told be fear.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
