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Thistles & Roses

No respect for negative-ad-producing political consultants

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As we endure this seemingly unending hot dry summer, I was thinking that, for now, we are not being bombarded with negative political attack ads. They are coming as sure as September.

I imagine that the political consultants are working hard on these ads right now. They are trying to dig up dirt on opponents. I don’t know whether to call them bottom-feeding scum suckers or scum-sucking bottom feeders. I have no respect for those whose profession is, for money (lots of money), to demean and ridicule another human being. I imagine they are already producing those ads where the person being attacked is depicted in one of those dark, evil looking photographs with some sinister quote taken out of context.

They use focus groups to refine these ads to have the most negative effect. It seems they are better called unfocused groups. What we are lacking these days is a majority of the population that has critical thinking skills.

Republicans and Democrats are equally at fault. Those of us who are truly in the middle of the road don’t have much say so. As the saying goes, the person in the middle of the road will get run over by vehicles going both directions.

I really think that the most qualified candidates have a hard time getting elected. I can think of several recent races in the Republican primaries where I knew the candidates well and knew the ones that had the best skills for the office. They finished distant thirds when the count was made. They did not attract much money and they did not go negative with their ads. I knew they were capable, experienced, dedicated people.

In today’s climate there is little room for moderate views. I think because I am a Democrat that some folks make assumptions that are fundamentally wrong.

It seems when I have sat on various non-profit boards, I end up on the finance committees. Just a few of these include the Mental Health Association of Tarrant County, The Botanical Research Institute of Texas, and the East Parker County Library. As president of the library board, I employed unyielding conservative fiscal controls until we had paid off our debt and had money in the bank. There were many Republicans on the board that recognized my financial skills. I was no free-spending liberal. I was and am a practical thinking moderate human being. I have many conservative ideas and many liberal ideas.

It is megabucks and dark money that is fueling these ads and campaigns. If we can’t stop it through legal means, we need to stop it with our minds when we go to vote. 

It is quiet now on the airwaves. We also have hot, dry, parched earth.

But the storms of political and negative saturation will arrive in September and lambast us until the election in November.

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