Political Advertising

Maybe I'm just not watching enough TV. Maybe I'd better do better than this. Or maybe it's my location. Whatever it is, the political ads I'm seeing are ... odd.

We're getting a glut of them, of course. They're almost exclusively from the Democrats. Just taking all the ads at face value, here is what I know. I know that Representative John Shadegg (R) is a bad guy. He has done all sorts of bad things. His opponent, Bob Lord (D), is upset and, therefore, wants me to vote for him. What Mr. Lord will do for me I have no idea. I only know that I must not vote for that other guy. In fact, it's the case with all Republicans in this state, it seems. I've seen multiple ads against multiple Republicans. They are, apparently, all illegal, immoral, un-American folks. Don't vote for them. What the Democrats running against them offer I haven't a clue.

There has been one -- only one -- Republican ad that I've seen. It lists a series of newspaper headlines that extol the records of John McCain and Sarah Palin. It says, in essence, "They've done good so far. We should vote them in." It does not say, "Don't vote for those dirty, rotten other people."

Now, I know that the Republicans aren't "angels". I know that both sides like to play dirty. But there are two things I see here. First, given the certainty of the "Republican Attack Machine" without a Democratic counterpart, why is it that all of the Democrats' commercials I've seen are attacks while none of the Republican ads are attacks? What's up with that? Second (and more importantly), why does politics have to be so much "Hate those other people" with barely a hint of "Here's what I can do for you"? What I'm really wondering here is this: Is this what Americans have come to?