Campaign Propaganda

For the past several months I have been considering the high usage of campaign signs and posters and other material designed to sway people’s voting decisions. I have come to the conclusion that they are nothing more than a cheap and dirty form of propaganda. Consider the propaganda that the Communists of the early twentieth century used. At least they wrote articles and attempted to persuade people of the rightness of their cause. Today’s propaganda in our republic is far more evil. I have several reasons to support this serious allegation.

First, a campaign sign generally portrays little more than the candidate’s name, position being sought and party affiliation. This gives the prospective voter nothing to make an intelligent choice upon. The voter should be choosing based on issues, yet today’s campaign sign attempts to use peer pressure to sway the voter’s choice rather than really addressing the issues. Why peer-pressure you ask? It is because if there are many signs for one candidate, it may appear that this candidate has more popular support than others. And this perception is something desired by those who seek political power. A very good example of this can be seen right here in Kirksville, during the 2004 presidential race. It seems campaigners are determined to place their ware upon every square inch of available ground. What does this accomplish? Nothing more than to certify that Bush or Kerry has more signs than the other. Whoever is seen as having this honor can be sure to add more lemmings to his crowd following.

A second consideration is the psychological affect that a large population of deviously designed campaign signs has. If a name is repeated over and over in one’s consciousness, it seems that the likelihood of that person being voted for goes up. As many marketers believe, any publicity is good publicity. This method is even worse than the first one though for it preys on cheap psychological tricks and ultimately divorces the issues from the candidate. Campaign signs don’t ensure that people are aware of the issues and vote based on those. Rather they ensure that one’s name is in the mind of the voter more than the opponent.

A final consideration is that campaign signs are anti-intellectual. Because they divert attention away from the real issues and more to name calling and appealing to people’s desire to pick sides, they ultimately support a less intelligent approach to the whole matter. And to be intelligent and wise are godly traits. Anything that discourages these is ultimately from the devil. Leave them alone. Any candidate that follows this advice will likely lose as a result, but who wants to win if it means sinning in the process? Only those who are already full of deceit and depravity.