Students review campaign ads

Midterm elections are right around the corner. While the political mumbo jumbo has not been forced down our throats just yet, there have been glimpses of what the political ads might look like for the upcoming elections.

As part of the election process, there has been an increase in how many different kinds of campaign ads we see on T.V. It all seems okay until you look closer at the ads that are being aired. There seems to be an overwhelming amount that tout negative messages.

Either they are full of mud-slinging speeches that appeal to hate and fear, or they are full of phrases that are not fully applicable to the upcoming election itself. These types of ads are aimed at different voters, yet everyone sees them, adults and children alike.

There is a belief that one of the things that helped Hitler to get the Nazi party in power was having complete control over the radio networks in Germany. It seems that this whole idea of having a presence in people’s home is still alive in controversial political leaders today.

There are many different ways that we hear about which politicians are running for office, but the most in-your face is the campaign ads that we see on T.V.

In talking to students around campus I have mixed reviews of three political ads that I asked them to watch. In response to watching one of the ads, often the reaction was of, “What did I just watch?” from students. The reason there was this reaction from students was due to the language in which the candidate talked about other politicians.

There’s no deny that some of these ads seem incredibly intsense to some viewers. Some students said that they would vote for at least one of these candidates while others said they would not vote for any of the three candidates.

“I don’t have a problem with them having those views. Believe what you want, but I don’t really have an opinion on whether or not they should be using those views to win campaigns,” Said Elizabeth Wheeler, a senior student here at MC.

Everyone is entitled to their beliefs and their opinions. All of the students agreed that this notion was lacking in the ads today.

I talked to Madison Davis, a member of the class of 2019, and asked her what about the ads she found so negative.

Her very enthusiastic reply was, “I don’t know what makes it more polarizing, but I guess one of the things was the way it seemed like there has to be a box that has to be ticked off and there is a list that you go down and check all of the boxes. I would also add that there is not a middle of the road, it’s very either you are this party or that party.”

When looking at these advertisments it is pretty clear that there really isn’t a middle of the road. Either you are Republican, or Democrat there is no middle ground.

However, the agreement that was reached among these students and young voters was that these ads are too polarized, and they have the ability to be negative. On the otherhand, they also have the opportunity to share a message of hope not only for current voters, but for voters of the future.