Better ads on this site?

Whenever I look at one of my entries as you see them, I am appalled at too many of the negative political ads that are shown.

Indict Joe Schmoe: Vote here
Jane Doe unfit for office: Vote here

I doubt that many of my readers would fall for these push polls.

Well, I think I finally got rid of them by clicking the right choices in some of the background stuff for ads.  I know I’ve been seeing ads instead for a local car dealer and some other local company.

If you see me and like the change, please let me know.

And if you like this blog, please tell your friends.

Thanks, Mel

Plutocracy and democracy

Someone on a facebook page asked what is plutocracy.  I don't remember whether it was about all the money in politics or not.  I answered that plutocracy meant rule of the wealthy.  We certainly see it with the Koch brothers and Michael Bloomberg.  The greatest danger of plutocracy is that it drives out participation by ordinary people, the essence of democracy.

I looked up plutocracy on Wiktionary and found this wonderful quote by G.K. Chesterton:

"Modernity is not democracy; machinery is not democracy; the surrender of everything to trade and commerce is not democracy. Capitalism is not democracy; and is admittedly, by trend and savour, rather against democracy. Plutocracy by definition is not democracy. But all these modern things forced themselves into the world at about the time, or shortly after the time, when great idealists like Rousseau and Jefferson happened to have been thinking about the democratic ideal of democracy."

How to stop political ads

Well, not quite stop them, but here are two ways to avoid them.

1) Don't watch TV.  Read lots of newspapers and magazines instead.

2) OK, you don't want to give up sports, reality shows, and Comedy Central.  Then try these simple steps each time a political ad comes on the screen.
a) Close your eyes
b) Put your hands over your ears
c) Count to 60
With these three simple steps you won't have missed anything meaningful.

Remember also that political ads are designed not to get you to vote for a candidate, but to get you discouraged about the other candidate and not even vote.  It seemed to work very well in New York's Ninth Congressional District in 2011.  The Republican candidate won despite a 3 to 1 Democratic registration.

So, get even yourself and be sure to vote.  Remember that the biggest spender is not always the winner.  Think Meg Whitman who outspent Jerry Brown by a wide margin for governor of California and lost by a wide margin.

Little bucks demonstrations vs. big bucks advertising

Mark Jeneson wrote "Make change with money, not protests" as a local view in today's Duluth News Tribune. Online it's titled "Create change through spending, not Wall Street protests".

Jeneson argues that taking all one's money out of the big banks will bring about more change than protests. However, these little private acts will only be known by a few people and may or may not spread. These little acts have a small chance of making major headlines.

To make headlines, most people need to demonstrate. They don't have the big bucks to advertise like the Koch brothers and their surrogates. Think of demonstrations as middle-class political advertising. If the cause is popular, more people will take part and more headlines about the cause will be made.