by Braden Rendano
On November 6, citizens voted for the next president of the United States. However, how did the voters get a good opinion of the candidates when Obama and Romney are lying about facts and attacking each other? Candidates do not always present the truth, which makes it hard to make a decision on who to vote for, and that should change.
During the final debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, “Romney claimed credit for top scores by Massachusetts grade-schoolers while he was governor,” factcheck.org states, “but they tested at the top, or near it, before Romney took office.”
The American people want to hear the candidate’s opinions and where they stand on particular topics. However, sometimes the facts are hard to decipher when the candidates are twisting facts or making false accusations about one another.
The lies and false accusations presented by the candidates cause more work for voters to sort out. It may even dissuade people to vote. False political claims can also warp the way that people vote as it can be hard to make a decision based on false facts.
Suppose I am busy and only see the attack ads and a bit of the debates. If the information from the candidates or Super PACS that support certain candidates is not honest, then my decision may be warped because of it.
People can also twist the words of candidates or only include candidate’s soundbyte to misconstrue their message. A super PAC called Black Men Vote “ takes a statement that Romney made about the very poor out of context — six times in 60 seconds. Listeners hear Romney say over and over, “I’m not concerned about the very poor.” He actually said, “I’m not concerned about the very poor; we have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.” (factcheck.org).
This is an example of another way that campaign supporters can influence a certain opinion that is not necessarily giving the whole argument. While Romney may have said the first part of his statement, he has more to say after it and his idea wasn’t finished. Therefore, the Black Men Vote’s ad misinterprets what Romney is saying.
People may say that attack ads and lies have been tossed around in campaigns before so why should they be changed now? The campaigns should be changed because the people could make better decisions, and we could get a real vote about what’s going on. The American people should have to do some research to figure out which candidates to like, but the candidates waste time telling lies and then having the opposing person say that it’s a lie. If the candidates told the truth, then they would have more time to talk about issues that actually mean something so people could make a better choice on which candidate to pick.
There should be a team of people during the debates that can look up facts and present the truth. That way if a candidate says something false, then the moderator can interrupt and say the truth. This will hopefully dissuade the candidates from lying as it looks bad if they are lying and it wastes time.
Those interested in the research on claims presented in campaigns, check out factcheck.org.
