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How much difference do politicians actually make?
I was listening to the radio this morning and heard that we should never vote for Tim Ryan. According to the ad, he personally sent Covid money to a bomber and most of the people in prison. Well, maybe he didn’t personally do it, but he helped his party-mates do it. I do know that Covid money was sent to a lot of people who didn’t need it and didn’t spend it. For example, my wife and I got a deposit of $1,200 that we didn’t need and didn’t spend, although I did spend it several years after the fact.
If I listen to the ad, I am left with the impression that Tim Raised my taxes, wasted millions if not billions of dollars and, to top it off, expanded the IRS so it can dip into my business and snatch away my hard-earned cash. Tim is for sure the cause of all that is bad in the world and is only likely to make things worse if he gets re-elected. Who is saying all of these nasty things about Tim? The add makes it seem like some responsible group is paying but I have no idea who they are or who they represent. The only thing that is certain is that they don’t like Tim and hope I will be afraid to vote for him whenever he runs for re-election for whatever office he now holds.
I checked with the Google Guy and learned that Tim actually isn’t running for re-election. He is running to be one of Ohio’s senators. The add doesn’t tell me who he is running against, but the Google guy told me that Tim is opposing JD Bance. Should I happen to take the ad seriously, I would likely conclude that JD Is not going to approve sending money to anyone, is going to reduce taxes as much as possible and do what he can to get rid of the IRS. Sending money to anyone is bad, taxes are bad and collecting taxes is even worse.
What do I conclude from all of this? … Absolutely nothing.
Well, maybe there is one conclusion worth consideration. I suspect the best part of good judgement is to assume that all political ads are lies and probably damn lies. Some may not be but there is no good way to tell. So I am left with the simple fact that political ads have no good purpose other than to scare me, as in be afraid of Tim or vote for anyone but Tim. Alternatively, such ads, if not designed to scare me, are designed to seduce me into thinking that this politician will keep me happy, prosperous and safe from the dastardly villains from the other party.
Political ads give me a false choice between being scared and traumatized on the one hand or seduced and thoroughly screwed on the other. Sure, it’s just another con game, with me as the mark. The one thing I can be pretty sure of is that it will never be as bad or as good as the con people tell me it will be. It’s that lies and damn lies thing again.
I suspect it was someone really famous who said this first, but I definitely never heard it in a political ad. Whatever you hear or whoever says it, even if I myself say it, don’t believe it unless you yourself know it to be true and correct, especially if you hear it in a political ad. Even then, don’t buy in until you have had at least a week to give it some serious thought.