Walt Rubel Commentary: Election ads breed fear and loathing

I’m glad the election is over. I was getting a little tired of the political ad rubbing our community’s worst day in our face every time I turned on a TV.

“One day in one city, two double homicides, four dead, Another day, an officer killed leaving two kids with no dad. New York or LA? No, Las Cruces.”

I don’t understand why any candidate would trash the community they are hoping to represent? And, why would the people living in that community vote for that candidate? Does Yvette Herrell feel like she is in New York or Los Angeles when she is visiting Las Cruces?

Yes, I understand the ad was paid for by a political action committee called the Club For Growth. And yes, I understand that there are laws attempting to prevent campaigns from coordinating with the PACs that support them. It’s a convenient dodge allowing unnamed others to sling the mud with unlimited money from anonymous donors.

While it was insulting and misleading, the Club For Growth ad was not unique. It fit perfectly with the theme of this year’s campaign at both the local and national levels: “Be afraid of them and vote for me.”

Spending on political ads focused on crime increased by about 123 percent in the two years from the presidential election in 2020 until the midterm in 2022, according to a report by the media tracking firm AdImpact. That trend has only accelerated since then. It’s estimated that $10.7 billion will be spent on political ads this year, with $1.7 billion in the weeks from Labor Day to election day.

Not surprisingly, all of that talk about doom and gloom has not been good for our collective mental health. A study of political ads in the 2015-2106 election cycle published by Social Science & Medicine found a direct link between exposure to negative political ads and an increase in anxiety. A 1 percent increase in the volume of political ads led to a .06 percent increase in the odds of the viewer being diagnosed with anxiety.

Of course, none of this is new. In 1964 Lyndon Johnson’s campaign superimposed video of a mushroom cloud behind a cute, little blond girl picking daisies to imply that Barry Goldwater would lead us into nuclear annihilation if elected.

Hope and change worked for Barack Obama and morning in America was a winner for Ronald Reagan, but fear has proven over the years to be a more effective motivator. In the past, there had always been a point of diminishing returns where the voters get fed up and turn against the negativity.

The damage caused by negative campaigns doesn’t end on election day. It makes it much more difficult for elected officials to reach across the aisle after demonizing members of the other party in personal attacks. Our Congress couldn’t even pick a speaker this session without weeks of bitter conflict.

And, the negative ads make it harder for all of us to set aside our differences once the election is over and work toward finding common ground with our friends and neighbors whose yard signs backed the other side.

That task begins today.


Walter Rubel can be reached at [email protected].

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