Not many of us would recognize the above snapshot from a political ad from the 1960's. It only aired once, and its impact was devastating. This ad implied that if Barry Goldwater was elected, we'd have World War 3. It was one of the best ads to air only once, as it scared people into NOT voting for Goldwater. And, in many ways, it led to many of the scare tactic / "vote against" ads we see today.
Lately, my TV has been bombarded with ads for the Democratic and Republican candidates for Congress in NY-17. The incumbent, a Republican, does very little for our district, and his only accomplishment is to have increased the SALT (state & local tax) deduction to $40k for the next 3 years. At the same time, he voted to gut much of the federal government safety net that takes care of many of America's poor and unemployed. His opponent will get my vote, simply because she is Anti-Trump, where the incumbent is solidly Pro-Trump.
Although this is a mid-term election, it is as important as most presidential elections, as it may give the Democratic party the power to check our current president. I'm hoping for this, as I'm tired of our Orange Monster blaming all of his failures on everyone else. Given that we're in an illegal war with Iran, our president needs to stop the monster before he goes completely bonkers (if one could say he hasn't done so already).
I expect that in 2 years, our presidential election ads will make it impossible to watch TV without getting disgusted by the ads. The Democrats will bet everything to regain the presidency when the monster is supposed to leave office, and the Republicans will be fighting to retain the presidency. Given that virtually no one in the Republican party was willing to check the monster when they could, I expect that they will continue the culture wars that the monster made part of his toolkit.
It'll take a lot of money, time and effort to undo the damage our president has done to our country and the world. I hope that this mid-term election becomes America's start to undo the harm the Orange Monster has visited on all of us.
