Things that Work / Negative Political Advertising

Brian Worthheim
 

Negative Ads

Not all things that work are good for us

I'm sure you've noticed all the negative ads as we get closer to the election Tuesday. But are they working?

They are in Wisconsin, and some heavy hitters in conservative circles are behind Ron Johnson and his campaign.

Up until recently, Mandela Barnes had a sizeable lead on Ron Johnson. That lead has evaporated as Johnson and an advertising campaign, largely funded by two billionaires who the Democrat’s campaign say are rewarding Johnson for his support of tax cuts that benefited them by hundreds of millions of dollars. The campaign is loaded with false hoods and racists dog whistles.

The Guardian and PBS reports Diane Hendricks, a rightwing billionaire businesswoman and Wisconsin native closely tied to Donald Trump, and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, founders of the Wisconsin-based Uline packaging company who have a long history of funding far-right candidates, are the main donors to a political action committee, Wisconsin Truth, which until recently was heavily outspending the Barnes campaign.

Their campaign may not be fair, but there's no law against it. NPR reports The federal government does regulate truth in advertising, but that only applies to commercial ads, not political ones. In fact, local broadcast channels - think your local NBC, CBS or ABC news stations - are required to air candidates' ads unfiltered.

After months of flinging mud, Senator Ron Johnson was finally obliged to admit that his Democratic opponent in the upper midwestern state of Wisconsin had never actually made a call to “defund the police”.

But that did not stop the Trumpist senator’s re-election drive from continuing to broadcast racially charged advertisements falsely claiming that Mandela Barnes, the lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, “rationalized violence” against the police and tying him to the most controversial positions of Black Lives Matter. -The Guardian

In a report on PBS NewsHour, Senator Tommy Tuberville in a campaign rally in Nevada with Donald Trump made racist claims. 

Some people say, well, they're soft on crime.

No, they're not soft on crime. They're pro-crime. They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have.

They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.

Bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED)!

And there's really no getting around the fact that that is a racist statement, the idea that only Black people commit crime or something, which is just patently untrue, and — yes, and just very much untrue.

But what I will say is that the Republican effort to tie Democrats to crime, to say that Democrats want crime or our, like, soft on crime, or want lenience on criminals, that is very much on message with the Republican campaigns.

There is a huge amount of spending on crime-related advertising. You mentioned Wisconsin. -Tamara Keith

The sad part is, standing with the facts may not be enough to offset big money and big lies that resonate with people's fears. It's not ethical, but it will continue to work, unless enough people who care, vote.