Negative ads: What do pointy-headed academics know about politics?

Ten years after publication, I had no idea my book on negative advertising had so perfectly captured the political scene. Yet, in the second paragraph of his Washington Post review of Dr. John Geer’s new book, In Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns, Dan Balz writes: “Geer, a Vanderbilt University political scientist, has set out to challenge the widely held belief that attack ads and negative campaigns are destroying democracy.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself, because, of course, I did say it myself. Balz’ dead-on premise was the second half of the title of my 2003 book: Poison Politics: Are Negative Campaigns Destroying Democracy?

Are negative ads destroying democracy? Of course they are—the evidence is everywhere in the debris of a Constitutionally-challenged Bush administration. We have this corrupt government because negative ads misled the American people. John Kerry was Swift-boated out of the Presidency, allowing George W. Bush four more years of illegal wiretaps and other catastrophic damage to our country. Dr. Geer surveys the ruins and insists negativity is good for the political system.

He confirms that negativity is on the rise and that the 2004 campaign was the most negative in the past four decades. But he claims that “any effort to lessen negative advertising will lessen the quality of information available to the public.”

To properly refute these academic ramblings, you’ll probably want to read my book (still available in paperback) while keeping your TV viewing as far removed from Fox News as possible. I wrote Poison Politics prior to the Swift-boat outrage but in the wake of Saxby Chambliss’ 2002 attack on the patriotism of Sen. Max Cleland, a decorated veteran and triple amputee. That those ads made it possible for Chambliss, who didn’t go to Vietnam (said he had a bad knee), to defeat Cleland, and for Bush, who declined to go to Vietnam, to defeat Kerry, is evidence our democracy has been severely damaged and that Dr. Geer has a screw loose.

A brief update: Rather than being driven into disgrace, John O’Neill, co-founder of the Swift boat ads, is now attacking the patriotism of Rep. Bernie Sanders in Vermont. You can expect to see O’Neill any evening on The O’Reilly Factor or Hannity and Colmes. Maybe Dr. Geer will join them.