by Jerry Esmay, Stevensville
Well, the election is finally over. Anyone else besides me that was sick of all the ads? From my perspective, this was the worst political cycle of my lifetime.
At the national level, it seems that we have forgotten that our governmental philosophy of, “Government of the People, by the People, for the People” is supposed to still be guiding us. Millions of dollars (I heard over $100 million on the Tester/Sheehy race alone) was spent by both major parties in our state on our national Senate and House races. You couldn’t get away from it. I was even bombarded when wanting to watch a YouTube video and when using my cellphone. I think our representatives should be focused on what is good for Montana citizens and not be influenced by out-of-state money.
The vast majority of the ads, from both parties, were simply accusing the opponents of near if not downright criminal activity. There was also plenty of what I would call “half-truths” where the opponent is accused of supporting a certain position or policy just by association with their political party.
Seems to me that it is time to put some restraints on all of this. How about the requirement for the ads to be “fact checked” by an independent organization before they can be posted? How about encouraging positive ads where the candidate identifies the issues he/she disagrees with his/her competitor on and offers his/her path to solutions? And, I certainly think there should be a financial limit on how much money each candidate can spend. With all the financial problems present in our society such as homelessness, grocery inflation, housing expense, etc., this money could be better spent elsewhere. Finally, I think each ad needs total transparency as to who is paying for that ad, not just a flash at the end with some unknown committee name.
What think other folks?