The New Democrat Network announced Thursday that it’s spending $2 million on radio and television ads that will urge Hispanics to get involved in politics, the Associated Press reported.
The commercials are running during the World Cup soccer games in 70 markets, including Albuquerque.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and call this a complete waste of money, unless it’s backed up with action. I’m sick of Democrats and Republicans spending a ton of money to tell certain groups (Hispanics, Blacks, women, gays, veterans, whoever) that they should join a political party or organization, then not backing up the words in the commercials.
Here’s an idea for both parties: Instead of saying you’re inclusive and care about the issues that are important to Americans, why don’t you take meaningful action on those issues?
Both parties might think they are doing just that. If that were true, more people would vote.
And we would already have real campaign finance reform. And immigration law reform. And health care reform. And education reform.
Need I continue?
Advertising is necessary. Voters need to know what politicians have done and what candidates say they’ll do. But ads need to be backed up by action.
Instead of working harder to deliver on promises, many politicos are spending more and more money on ads that make more promises. Meanwhile, political party membership is declining. Many analysts believe the time is right for a third major party to enter American politics.
At 60 percent, voter turnout for the 2004 presidential election was higher than any election since 1968, and young voter turnout increased by several million from 2000 to 2004.
But many, if not most, were voting against a candidate, not for a candidate.
Democrats who pressured independent friends to vote for John Kerry instead of Ralph Nader in 2004 won’t likely win that argument again, since it didn’t matter. And those who voted for Kerry simply because he was the one running against Bush may be discouraged and stay home next time.
Some politicians have said Americans are lazy or too busy to be involved. That’s a poor excuse. Americans make time for things they find important. If the political system was serving the people, more Americans would be involved.
There are a couple of examples this week of how out of touch the leadership of the Democratic Party in this state has become. Its leaders, at their preprimary nominating convention earlier this year, voted overwhelmingly to back Ray Powell over Jim Baca for land commissioner, and gave more votes to Geno Zamora and Lemuel Martinez than Gary King in the attorney general race.
But rank and file Democrats rejected their choices, voting to put Baca and King on the November ballot. Of course, I’m speaking about the approximately 10 percent of registered Democrats who even voted.
There’s too much corporate money in the Democrat and Republican parties. Americans aren’t stupid or gullible, and that’s why spending more money on advertisements, without the action to back them up, won’t help. They don’t want to be told they are important. They want to be shown.
Some Democrats and Republicans are doing this. But the political organizations behind them are not. As a result, millions of Americans have become deaf to the words of politicians.
More action would speak volumes.