We are now in the heart of the election season.
Early voting has made the campaigning during this part of the cycle even more intense. While Election Day is still months away in November, early voting in North Dakota begins next month.
The campaigns are still trying to make their cases, and besmirch their opponents, before voters begin locking in their ballots in just a few weeks.
What I’m trying to tell you, as if you haven’t already noticed, is that things are very nasty right now. They’re going to get nastier the closer we get to Nov. 6.
I’m sure I’m not revealing anything to you folks. We’ve all complained about the mudslinging and gotcha campaigning. And for that we blame the politicians and the armies of operatives and pollsters and strategists who work for them.
I would suggest to you, however, that they are not the problem.
We voters are the problem.
Candidates savage one another on the campaign trail because it works. It can move the needle with voters. Candidates and political groups would not invest millions upon millions of dollars into negative messaging if it weren’t a workable strategy.
We complain about negativity in politics, but negativity in politics is a sound strategy because we, the public, buy into it.
Even…
