Presidential candidates promulgated a dangerous trend inpolitics this past week. President Bush aired the first attack adsof the campaign season against Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry in 18battleground states. This appears to have signaled the beginning ofback-and-forth volley between the two. It is not necessary toassign blame for who started it, for negative politics is moreindicative of the system rather than any individual politician.However, with the elections still over six months away, it seemsthat we will have much more of this to look forward to.
While Ed Board is not surprised to see this type of dirtypolitics from either party, what is of concern is the escalatedtimetable of presidential elections. The problem is more than justone of media overload or voter desensitization (although both nodoubt result), it is a problem that could threaten the democraticprocess.
Early front-runner Howard Dean filed his statement of candidacywith the Federal Election Commission in May of 2002, nearlytwo-and-a-half years before Election Day. This compared with theJune 1999 filing of then Gov. George W. Bush for the 2000 election,a year and a half in advance of the election. The presumedDemocratic nominee Kerry also began his campaign later in 2002. Ifthis trend is to be continued, soon we will find ourselves in anongoing election cycle with no off-season.
The real problem here is that the advancing start of thecampaigns causes the season to be stretched out, which in turnrequires candidates to spend more money every election. In thesetimes of increasing political unaccountability and furtherinvolvement by special interest groups, the nation needs to doeverything within its power to remove the influence of money frompolitics. Instead, candidates will need to raise more and morecapital to prevent being outspent.
These longer campaigns do not signal a more searching look atnational issues, nor do they create an increased opportunity forpublic debate about the candidates or the nation’sdirection.
If they did, then Ed Board might find some value in them. Butfar from adding any worth to the process, this trend only furtherdegrades our political process.
This trend continues to help spending and image trumpsubstance.
