With Election Day less than a week away, the insanity that comes from political campaigns is almost over.
When it comes to how these campaigns are run, it's clear that the path that the country is on needs to be redirected. Radical partisanship is not going to help the U.S. stay the course in stormy foreign policy issues nor keep things stable domestically; we need a change now more than ever.
Unfortunately, negative campaign ads undermine truly constructive campaigns. Voters should not allow themselves to be disillusioned by the traditional campaign fodder and rise to the occasion to focus on the real issues.
Casually listening to the TV in the background on Halloween, the scariest thing I heard all day was the rumbling of combative campaign ads.
The commercials I've seen have been more negative than positive, notably in the senatorial race between the incumbent Republican Jon Kyl and Democratic candidate Jim Pederson in the race for senator.
Commercials for the 5th Congressional District race between U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth and former Tempe Mayor Harry Mitchell have also been of the negative variety.
Negative advertisements are a macro-level problem with the political system, according to Joaquin Rios, president of the ASU Young Democrats.
Rios stated that negative campaigns are a result of our weak political parties, which allow for "an 'every man for himself' attitude by candidates and a lack of cohesive demographic or ideological unity between candidates of the same party."
For this reason, he believes that American political parties resort to negative ads to turn out voters.
T.J. Shope, president of the ASU College Republicans, said he had heard from people that campaign commercials were particularly bad this year.
"Parties have to drive up negatives on the opposition and this year is no exception," Shope said.
He also stated that, speaking objectively, his favorite ads were actually those for the re-election of Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano because they stay positive and focus on her accomplishments.
Shope went on to say, "If we lived in an ideal world, I'd like [all campaign ads] to be positive."
Clearly, the negativity that has become inherent in campaign advertising seems to just go with the ugly territory of elections. Keeping this in mind gives all the more reason to not get caught up in the minutia of propaganda and partisan politics, and look at the real issues.
Occasionally, there is some political crossover by objective and fair-minded individuals. For example, several Valley Republican mayors endorsed Napolitano.
Three of these mayors from the West Valley experienced some backlash when Republican officials demanded their resignation in hand-delivered letters on Friday.
This move shows the partisan involvement in municipal politics, which ideally are nonpartisan.
So much for that.
The Arizona Republic, not known for being the "liberal media," went so far as to endorse Harry Mitchell over J.D. Hayworth, who the paper had favored in his previous six congressional races.
The Friday issue called Hayworth a "bully" and "wrongheaded." The paper referred to Mitchell as a "bridge-builder," someone with the ability to reach across the aisle, and conversely called Hayworth a "bomb-thrower."
Taking this all into account, if the nation is to get back on track, then there is a need for politicians who contend with the real issues and have the ability and civility to work with the other side for a better America.
Now, we as voters just need to rise above the partisan pandering and propaganda in order to make it happen.
Rick Beitman is a partisan political science and French major who is starting to hate partisan politics. Tell him what you think at: richard.beitman@asu.edu.
