Scare Tactics in Election Campaigns

In this an election year and the battle for political or local election issues I am tired of political candidates, school boards or anyone else who uses scare tactics for election purposes. Many schools use tactics to scare the people in their district to pass bond issues for increases in funding. Many times they make statements that without the tax increase services would be reduced. Some examples are extracurricular activities and school busing. The problem that I have seen or heard is the school board does not efficiently manage their funds. Many times the employment base is more than required to provide the needed quality services for our schools. I have also found or heard that spending is not being properly prioritized. Spending the tax money they receive should be allocated to improve the value of education students receive. To maintain activities and employment levels that do not impact the quality of educational services being provided, school boards must ask for increase in funds. Sometimes it is a matter of increase cost based on proper salary raises associated with increased cost of living. However, these increases could be reduced if the schools properly manage the funds they receive.

In political campaigns, which include local, state and federal elections political candidates use scare tactics to convince voters to vote for them. They make statements that the incumbents make decisions that are inappropriate for their constituents. Making these statements usually does not include the reasons for the decisions being made or what they would do given the same information to make the decisions. Many times issues that are decided by government officials are not popular but they must be made. We may not like the decisions but many times they are in our best interest. Candidates running for office who are trying to unseat a government official use scare and in so doing are I believe, are showing disrespect for the intelligence of voters.

Voters for the most part are intelligent and can make good decisions if given accurate information. When candidates for any office use scare tactics to win votes I tend to vote for their opponents as they are not talking about the issues but only making efforts to discredit their opponents. This is wrong. A voter needs to make decisions not based on scare tactics but the qualifications and records of the persons running for office. Understand a candidate’s position on the issues and vote for those who support your position. Voters deserve to hear candidates talk about the issues that are important to them not making statements trying to discredit their opponents.