By Simon Gonzalez
Our long, national nightmare is almost over.
At this time next week it will be safe to watch TV again without the mute button at hand and to fetch the mail without rubber gloves.
Yes, Election Day is next Tuesday. There will be much rejoicing — not just from winning candidates, but also from a dispirited and weary electorate.
Some of us have been voting for a few decades now and can’t remember a more awful presidential campaign than the one pitting Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump. This is truly a choice between two extremely unpalatable alternatives, each of whom has unfavorable ratings north of 50 percent.
The televised ads are a reflection of the dismal choices. It’s nigh impossible to sit through a commercial break without being assaulted by yet another message saying how deplorable the other candidate is.
A September 2016 report from the Wesleyan Media Project states, “Just over 60 percent of Clinton’s ads have attacked Trump while 31 percent have been positive, focusing on Clinton. Trump, on the other hand, has by and large used contrast ads, which both promote himself and attack Clinton. He has aired no positive ads.”
Alas, it’s not just at the national level. There’s been a trickledown nastiness that’s affected and infected every race from state to local.
Thanks to the advertising campaigns, it’s possible to cite numerable reasons not to vote for Richard Burr or Deborah Ross for U.S. senator. Once in a while they’ll mix in an ad touting their qualifications, but for the most part it’s all insurance companies, sex offender registries, flag burning and personal wealth.
The gubernatorial race between Pat McCrory and Roy Cooper is almost as bad. The candidates, surrogates and PACs spent nearly $20 million on broadcast TV ads, as reported by an analysis in early October, making it the second-most expensive in the nation behind only Missouri. That’s tens of thousands of commercials, most of them trying to convince us why we shouldn’t vote for the other guy.
The race for North Carolina’s 9th district state Senate seat has tainted not just our TVs, but also our mailboxes. At least Michael Lee and Andrew Barnhill have tried to tell us why they are the best person for the job, but their race, too, has been contaminated by negativity.
The state Republican party polluted our mailboxes with attack ads accusing Barnhill of spending time in a casino when he was supposed to be on a mission trip to South Africa while a college student. Barnhill’s campaign seized on a comment Lee made a couple of years ago about supporting offshore drilling to find natural gas to raise the specter of oil-covered beaches.
At the county commission level, campaigning funding generally precludes massive advertising campaigns. But who needs a big ad budget when you can plant signs accusing a candidate of being a harlot?
That’s what happened to Patricia Kusek on Halloween eve. Campaign signs popped up in front of a few churches, using antiquated language accusing the candidate of not being able to keep her promises because she is “4x divorced.”
Kusek quickly decried the “despicable and desperate tactic” and pointed out that while she has been divorced three times, she has been married to her husband for 29 years.
The signs were just the latest zany antics in the race for three county commission seats that has seen an ongoing feud between members of the same party since the primary season, when Republicans actively campaigned against one of their own, Beth Dawson. Meanwhile, challenger Derrick Hickey set up a Facebook page encouraging voters not to cast ballots for fellow Republicans Kusek, Woody White and Jim Brumit because of their ties to the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority board.
The good news is, after Election Day it will be over. No more assault by negative advertising. Just try not to think about the fact that while none of these folks are worthy of our votes if you believe the attack ads, the signs and the sniping, half of them will have been elected.
