COLUMNISTS

It's Necessary: Voters tired of TV trash

Kevin Necessary
Special to the Enquirer
The midterm elections can't come and go soon enough, as many voters are tired of their televisions being overrun by negative political ads.

I dread turning on the TV these days. Not just network TV either − streaming services, YouTube, anything with a video player. Because as soon as I look at a screen, I'm immediately bombarded with ads.

Political ads.

We're in the home stretch of the midterms, with nothing less than the fate of American democracy at stake. People should be and need to be engaged in the political process. The public needs to be informed about who is running, what candidates' records are, and what issues are on the ballot. 

Political ads, however, are trash. 

Think candidates hate each other?Not really. Most had nice things to say about their opponent

Think of all the political ads you've ever seen. Has any really touched on issues, or given you real insight into a candidate? No. The ads aren't designed to get you to think, to look into candidates or what they stand for. They exist solely to make you afraid of Person A and boost Person B. Drivel of the lowest kind, and the more you watch, the more your brain seeps out through your nostrils.

Like climate change and COVID, we unfortunately have to live with political ads. But it doesn't mean we can't gripe about them.

Kevin Necessary is an illustrator and editorial cartoonist. His editorial cartoons appear Sundays in The Enquirer.