I’ve never been so glad that my eighteenth birthday fell after the gubernatorial election.
In the months leading up to Nov. 5, I, along with millions of other poor Virginia residents, was bombarded with horrible ads everywhere we turned, each promising that either Ken Cuccinelli or Terry McAuliffe is a horrific person and would destroy the Virginia we all know and love.
Does anybody fall for that anymore? Nobody I’ve spoken to does. Frankly, the often blatantly false ad-hominem attacks made me feel nothing but disgust for both candidates. I couldn’t wait until my favorite Pandora station and YouTube videos would come free of vitriol. I even saw a few ads on Twitter, though those were considerably less sensational than other commercials I’ve seen.
This is a public service announcement to anyone considering running for governor in any future elections: please, fact check your attacks and provide some actual context for soundbites before you promise doom and gloom. And if you choose to use voiceovers, try to get someone that doesn’t sound so much like a car salesman. Maybe then I won’t feel as though both campaigns think that I as an independent need my political views sold to me.
I’m not happy that McAuliffe won, because it shows that my view is soundly a minority. Of the two candidates, his attack ads against Cuccinelli were particularly full of falsehoods and half-truths. “How could you support a misogynistic evangelist like Cuccinelli?” you might be wondering. Well, if you do the littlest bit of digging and find the full clip or interview where Cuccinelli supposedly promised a war against women, you’d find that his statements are often completely taken out of context. The exact same goes for McAuliffe.
My other problem with the election is that it spent a lot of time focusing on issues that the governor cannot even control. Social issues aren’t really ever up to the states. It’s not as though the governor can suddenly decide to defund Planned Parenthood or arbitrarily raise taxes for no reason. Even so, I still heard nothing but “Cuccinelli will take away our right to choose!” and “McAuliffe has promised high taxes!”
If I’d had the misfortune to be able to vote, I would have abstained. I don’t want my choices to be between bad and worse. If you as a candidate cannot keep from sinking to insults, half-truths, and sometimes even blatant lies, then you will not get my respect or my vote.