The Paw Print Editorial Board wants to start this issue by reminding everyone of the age old adage “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
The media has been flooded with political campaigns for months leading up to the election. Unfortunately, politicians often tear down their opponents rather than building up their own platforms. They create advertisements, usually costing millions of dollars, just to spread negative information about their competitors. It is not uncommon for this information to be misleading, entirely false, or largely over exaggerated either.
Our Editorial Board believes that in addition to being a waste of money, the degrading commercials are a poor reflection of character on the person approving the message. It would be much more productive for these politicians to use their campaign budget to gain publicity on their own agenda. From our view, the abundance of ads make it seem like they do not have a strong enough platform to win, without trying to obstruct their contenders campaign.
The Paw Print Editorial board believes that moving forward politicians should only be allowed to advertise about themselves, highlighting their accomplishments and qualifications, rather than criticizing the person they are running against.
Many people receive the majority of their information from their social media outlets, often citing distrust and exaggeration with the mainstream media outlets as the reason. In the election of 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaigning team creating a commercial of a little girl picking petals off a flower. It then zooms into the girls eye and the counting of petals turns into a countdown to a bomb impplying that if you didn’t vote for Johnson, the Cold War (a big concern at the time) would become real. They used it to invoke fear into voters saying that the bombs would kill them and their children. It is difficult, especially as new voters, to determine what information is true and dependable. Voting is generally based on the issues that each voter finds to be important. Therefore, the majority of the voting population is looking to see how each candidate addresses said issues to determine who they believe will be best fit. It is hard to understand what each candidate truly stands for when you are mainly exposed to ads focusing on the unpopular opinions they may have, or lies to make them look bad.
This also feels like a good time to remind our readers that digital footprint is real. We have all seen how some of our government officials provide a poor self image by posting untasteful things to their large social media following. It is unattractive to voters when they see posts that are offensive, unintelligent, and/or based on lies.
With that being said, it is just as important that we as students remain mindful when posting about matters such as politics. There is absolutely nothing wrong with voicing your opinion and standing for what you believe in, but there is no need to be rude or degrading to someone else while doing it. Similarly to how we believe politicians should not be tearing their opponents down, our editorial board believes that we should not be attacking groups of people based on their personal beliefs. Remaining respectful on social media and in real life speaks volumes about a person’s character.