Imagine waking up to the buzz of your phone, only to find that some politician had messaged you. Within the past month, that’s happened to me at least twice, and what an utter disappointment it was each time.
Election season is approaching its close around the nation for governors, secretaries of state, attorneys general, congressional representatives and more. Voting is finally here, but with it, so are incessant messages from candidates.
I understand that politicians want to get their message out there and receive votes to win their offices. I also understand that text messages are a fast way for voters to learn more about you.
But do you really need to have access to my phone number and blow it up with your personal agenda? If I want to, I can look up your background information, political stance and messages on the Internet, so it seems meaningless to blast voters’ personal phone numbers.
Despite my annoyance to politicians messaging me, the Federal Communications Commission wrote that “political text messages can be sent without the intended recipient’s prior consent if the message’s sender does not use autodialing technology to send such texts and instead manually dials them.”
Unfortunately, due to the FCC’s statement, people can do little to nothing about the removal of these messages. Really, the only thing that anyone can do is reply STOP, delete the message or block the number.
One of the other frustrations during this time is watching commercials where politicians tear down their opponents to make themselves look better.
In an attempt to boost her political campaign for a Florida U.S. Senate seat, Val Demings made an ad about Marco Rubio being against abortions for women who experience incest or rape and his support of overturning Roe v. Wade. The overall tone of the commercial made Marco Rubio seem like an awful person by almost “shaming” him for his own beliefs. Though the commercial aired months ago, it still stands true of politicians continuing to scrutinize their opponents through videos.
Politicians have long used negative ads in an attempt to get ahead in their races. While I can empathize Demings wanting to create change and advocate for Floridians, she should focus her energy on advertising her own positions instead of bashing her opponent’s.
Another example of this tendency comes from Tim Ryan, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Ohio. In a debate, Ryan called his opponent J.D. Vance an “ass kisser.”
Is name calling really necessary in a political debate? I think not. Using name calling as a tactic to win votes simply makes Ryan and other politicians look like children. This isn’t kindergarten. You’re grown adults, so it would wonderful if you could start acting like it. Because you’re the people who are supposed to be looking after the American people, not replaying some elementary school flashbacks.
I don’t understand why politicians have to tear someone else down to make themselves look better. It’s a bad look that makes me question if they’re actually decent human beings. Going as low as bashing someone in a commercial honestly makes politicians look pathetic.
Though politics can be a brawl, I don’t see the reason for politicians to potentially ruin someone’s reputation in an attempt to be perceived in a better light and garner votes.
It would be fantastic if politicians could stick to billboards, lawn signs and social media accounts, instead of pestering our personal lives through text messages and bombarding our visual entertainment.
Taylor Hamilton is an 18-year-old mass communication freshman from Tallahassee, Florida.
