Reality TV: Bullying, lies and campaign funding

By Susana G. Baumann

What do bullying, lies and Citizens United have in common? They are killing our democracy. 

We are only three months away from the national elections, and the campaign trail has become a battle ground for bitter attacks and negative confrontation. Both candidates keep making accusations of using “distractive strategies” on one another but in reality both have something to hide and, apparently, little to offer. 

Bullying seems to be a leadership style chosen by Republicans, encouraged by a base that wants to see “blood.” No matter what the damage, the consequences, the long-term results, they want to impose their ideas by aggression because “tough people are needed to run society.”

Democrats, on the other hand, seem to have chosen the victim’s place, an innerving moderation used as a tactic for self-defense, not an organized party with real ideas and a strong political demeanor. 

And then there is the realm of lies. 

The ad campaigns launched by both parties and Super PACs are a string of sound bites and images more on personal attacks and less about political and economic strategies that will lead the country in the next four years. 

In that context, taking words out of context is just Campaign 101 material but there is also the distortion of ideas and facts, the rumors, the “through the rock and hide the hand” and the “lying to your face”  techniques. 

And then there is the media, seldom calling out any of these behaviors. 

Crowned with the largest amount of money spent in a general election to buy advertising time, we will get to November 2^nd with little idea of what will happen after November 3^rd. 

Yet, this is our reality show, the one we all take place in. As in any other reality show, many believe they are not scripted, that they are the real candidates with real lives, real families, and real emotions who “love America” and want the best for us. 

But in reality –to be redundant- the campaigns are a carefully designed strategy to “get” the opponent in their weaknesses and misery. Because, who wants to follow a “loser”? 

Feeding the viewers on negative emotions, fear, unhappiness and problems is anything but a political campaign. 

In the end, if true ideas, strategies and facts are not discussed, giving all of us the opportunity to freely choose our representatives such as it should be in a democratic society, it is because politicians are trying to “sell us” something; something we might not like once we “seal the deal” and we find out there was small print on the other side of the page.