Should political advertisements be banned?

[QuantumPion]

How about we remove the incentives for anyone to give huge amounts of money to politicians for elections, by removing the (almost entirely unconstitutional) power lawmakers/regulators have over the laws/tax codes begin with.

For example, when the FDA has the power to ban the drug your company has spent a billion dollars developing at the slightest whim (e.g. because they think you are charging too much money for it), you'd be crazy to not donate large sums of money to politicians on BOTH sides, to make sure that whom ever wins is not hostile towards you.

 

[ElFenix]

Already regulated.

Contribution limits in the U.S.

and also not undone by any recent court case

 

[Craig234]

From wiki:

So banning tobacco ads (clearly commercial speech) is not the same as banning political ads that are clearly not commercial speech.

Again, it's debatable.

If big tobacco spends millions to elect the guy who will allow cigarette advertising on tv and take the warning ads off packages, is their motive commercial or 'political'?

What if they run ads on secondary issues that are best for getting votes, whether it's abortion or war policy or whatever, but their reason is for profit for the issues above?

Corporations have commercial interests, period. Citizens have political opinions.

 

[Patranus]

From wiki:

So banning tobacco ads (clearly commercial speech) is not the same as banning political ads that are clearly not commercial speech.

Pretty sure the Tobacco companies didn't take the issue to the supreme court.
If they did, they would probably win.

 

[rudeguy]

first step to fixing DC: Take the money out of DC.

No way money should play into who gets elected.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I say we have a factcheck type organization which examines ads in advance and if they are crap then they have to be redone. People may make the truth look like a lie, but outright lies or unverifiable nonsense would be eliminated.

Also a cap on ALL donations, be it corporations or unions or whomever. We might need a Constitutional amendment, but I'd go for one which caps total dollars spent on a campaign and third parties who win sufficient support get matching funds from the pool. That way new people have at least a chance to get heard. Some shuffling would be necessary depending on the number of party members etc, but there needs to be some kind of system to give an alternative.

 

[Wreckem]

From wiki:

So banning tobacco ads (clearly commercial speech) is not the same as banning political ads that are clearly not commercial speech.

Ummm it could be argued companies donate money and pay for advertisements so they can get profits by favorable voting of the person they are donating for.

 

[ElFenix]

Ummm it could be argued companies donate money and pay for advertisements so they can get profits by favorable voting of the person they are donating for.

advocating for or against a policy/politician is the core of what the first amendment seeks to protect. that it's done for self-interested reasons is not at all shocking, in fact, it'd be shocking if the otherwise happened.

 

[monovillage]

Note: I don't vote, and my political views are pretty middle of the road, so this opinion is not biased.

It seems to me that political advertisements are full of lies and misdirection, from all parties involved. It also seems to me that whichever candidate spends the most money on these disgraceful ads will ultimately win the election. The end result is that corporations, organizations, rich people, and even other countries could be in effect determining the outcome of most of our elections.

Political advertisements should be banned in all forms. Mostly because I hate listening to all our worthless politicians spouting off more lies and FUD.


EDIT:

Alternatively:
What if instead we were to keep ads, and make new rules for campaign contributions.

I.e.

No contributions from corporations.
No contributions from foreign sources.
No single person can contribute over $X.

Any candidate convicted of accepting fraudulent donations is removed from public service for the rest of their life.

I'm glad you don't vote, keep up the good work.

 

[lothar]

Should political advertisements be banned?

Hell no.
The political advertisements are the only things interesting/entertaining every election.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRY7wBuCcBY (Very funny)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpwdcmjBgNA (Classic!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yr7odFUARg (Interesting...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU4t9O_yFsY (Not really funny or thought provoking like the others, but I especially like ads which feature animals so it automatically gets a honorable mention)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPy7RnHwvmA&p=043A185DFF165C36&index=13&feature=BF (More ads...Plays several in a slide show format one after the other)

Do people really watch the Superbowl for the game or the ads?
I watch it for the ads.