Good advertising comes from harnessing two things, hope and fear. Sound scary? Well, it is especially when it comes to politics. As a disclaimer, I’m not here to jump on the bandwagon for the left or the right, because both side are guilty of this.
The recent midterm election in Texas is a perfect example of how politicians used voters hopes or fears as the fuel to their campaigns.
The Democrats built their campaigns on the voters hope to change the current leadership in the Texas senate. By promising to make an end to corruption and dishonesty of the current sitting leadership in the senate, they used hope to motivate voters to get to the polls.
While, Republicans used fear as the fuel to his campaign, by telling his voters that democrats would open borders, socialized health care, and that impeaching Trump would be devastating to the U.S. economy.
Both of these tactics have proved to be problematic. As these fallacies continue to deviate the voters from the facts, as they manipulate their hopes and fears to motivate them to get to the polls.
Take this blog as you will, but if you take anything from this, next time the elections come around try to identify these tactics. My hope, is that one day people will become literate of these tactics, and vote based on truth rather than fallacy.