Well, I’ve delayed this month’s post again in the hope that I could get a really big post done, but this still isn’t happening. Maybe it will happen by next month, but I will get the backup done in advance while spending a potentially long time on this other post. I don’t want to be writing this post the day of, a bad habit of mine for blogs, yet here we go again! Plus, my addiction that I have to writing blogs is a problem that I don’t think that anyone else fully understands. And it is not something I’m planning to change. I realize that I need help, but won’t change my behavior relating to my own problem. What’s wrong with me?
Anyways,
I should get to the point of what this blog is about. When I see political ads,
there are a lot of things that I think about regarding it. I’ve started a
clicker for it in regards to this year’s election. We just have several more
months until it is over. But there are good ways to handle ads and bad ways. I
want to encourage every single Democrat running for office to read this post
and follow my advice for how to do good ads that will either win you elections
or at least let people know that you were trying.
In
2018, both the Missouri senate race and the Illinois gubernatorial race had the
Republican candidate for office lying a lot and the Democratic one calling them
out on these lies. If one lies, the other person should always call them out on
it. And I know that when one ad is showing proof that the lies are lies and the
original ad doesn’t have proof or sources backing that up in their ads, then
why should I believe the ones that are clearly lies?
Sadly,
not everyone will see it as that. When Claire McCaskill called out Josh Hawley
for his lie saying that he would protect pre-existing conditions, my brother
thought that she was attacking his child. She wasn’t. The ad made no mention of
his child. And shouldn’t one call out a lie for what it is? You can’t just let
him claim that he is for that coverage when he has openly voted against it and
supported a lawsuit to get rid of protections for people with it.
What’s
always dumb is just how often, at least in nearby red areas where I live near,
such as Missouri and Kentucky, the too liberal attack works. That’s not even a
good argument as to why one shouldn’t be elected. They are too liberal. So what?
How is that a problem? Do people really not see or care just how badly too
conservative people are that are issues?
This
leads to where people need to focus on in ads. In 2020, both of the Democrats
who ran for senate in Kentucky and governor in Missouri never really focused on
issues that could have lead to them winning. One would be more likely to beat
Mitch McConnell if one does simple things like point out all of the terrible
things that he has said and done. I could imagine that being a good ad. And one
will need to do attack ads at times since they are likely going to be attacked
by the other side anyways.
Mitch
has given people plenty of reasons not to ever vote for him under any
circumstances. It might help some people to simply air any and all of those
things that he has said and that will make them realize that they shouldn’t be
voting for a person who refuses to work with the other party and then blames
them for everything that goes wrong. Going to the Missouri race, Mike Parson
has said a lot of things, belittling the severity of the pandemic as nearly all
Republicans do, that should be in the ads if you want to convince people not to
vote for him. In neither race were these issues front and center in the ads. They
weren’t mentioned at all. Did they want to win? You can’t just assume that
people know what all they’ve said and done. If people paid attention to what
was going on in this country, Republicans would never even get elected.
Another
failure of the 2020 ad cycle was the fact that no one was attacking the
Republicans for causing the longest government shutdown in history. I’d know
that there are a lot of issues that could take more importance as well, but
these weren’t happening in the ads. It was an important issue and now there’s
not going to be a chance to use it again.
This
leads to the current election cycle. If Republicans are painted to be the party
of the January 6th insurrection, they aren’t likely going to last. They
might actually do terribly in the elections, or at least the House races. Point
out the hypocracy of anyone who said that voters should decide Trump’s fate who
then voted against what voters actually wanted. Call out anyone and everyone
who praises those who stormed the capitol. Call out anyone who said that they
never said one thing with the proof that they did say something, like Kevin
McCarthy wanting Trump to resign. And especially point out everyone who
admitted that it was a bad day at one point who won’t say that in the present
or then voted against a commission to find out what actually went on.
That’s
what the point of this post and the title of this means. If Democrats don’t
want to wonder what went wrong after election losses, they should realize: it’s
the ads. If you put anything that could help your cause or hurt your opponents,
put it in the ads. Don’t just assume that they will know what you are talking
about. Focus on making good ads and don’t just make any election a wasted opportunity
to get rid of someone horrible.
