Does negative campaigning between candidates lead to less voter participation?

Yes

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by Barry Briskman

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Does Opponent Bashing Drive People Away From The Voting Booth?

During the season of intense campaigning for the Presidential nominations, it's hard not to notice that opponent bashing' is the rule rather than the exception. And not a single candidate from either party has refrained from personal attacks on their rivals. Granted, some are worse than others, but many citizens have made it plain that this behavior has so disgusted them, that they have decided not to even cast a ballot.

I recently attended a group meeting of a fraternal organization here in Southern California. There were about 25 people present, most of whom were middle-class Americans. I viewed this as an opportunity to find out if the current candidate behavior, especially during political debates, disgruntled them as much as it does me. So I asked the question, "How do you feel about all the personal attacks and opponent bashing by candidates for the office of President of the United States?" The answers didn't surprise me at all.

Almost to a man, they all said that they hated it and that it detracted from the real issues being discussed. And that it seemed beneath the dignity' of men and women competing for a nomination in the upcoming presidential election. This led me to ask still another question, "Will this affect what you do in the voting booth?" The answer to this did surprise me.

Out of the 25 people in our discussion, 18 stated that they were so fed up with it, that they decided they didn't want to vote for anybody, party not withstanding. Of the others, 3 said Yes, but that they would probably try to ignore these comments and base their decision on answers to the issues put forth in political debates. The remaining 4 said that they had made up their minds before the debates even started and that they planned to vote for the best person (in their opinion) within their own party. I should also add that nearly everyone present said they were equally fed up with the overuse of the word change.'

While this group hardly represented a statistically-viable sampling, it does point up that there are many Americans who find this opponent bashing sufficiently upsetting to not vote at all. I might add here that this 25-person group included whites, blacks and two of Asian descent and three women. Most were in the age group between 35 and 55. They were Democrats, Republicans and Independents.

Persona lly, I don't believe that refusing to vote at all is the smart thing to do. After all, it is the only activity available to us to have any effect on the outcome, regardless of how small. Moreover, extending this across the total voter base in the United States certainly suggests that there may be a significant number of voters who will refuse to cast a ballot due to personal attacks and opponent bashing.

Naturally, I realize that this campaigning strategy has been around since the beginning. A check shows that there even considerable false and misleading attacks against Thomas Jefferson when he ran for President way back in 1800.

It does make me wonder, though. What would the difference be if prospective presidential nominees stuck to the issues and only responded to inaccurate characterizations without attempting personal assassinations.

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