Are YOU an idiot?

Yesterday's Reuters/Zogby poll that showed McCain with a five point lead indicates that though Americans claim to dislike negative campaign ads, they work.

And why do they work?

A person of average intelligence knows that these ads distort the truth, at best. Their existence is based on deception. Attack ad creators use the same tactics as did Goebbels. Who cares about the truth when you're on a quest for power?

The politicians who approve these messages certainly don't care about truth, but apparently, neither do the American people. Or are they really too dumb to see through the ads?

I think television campaign ads should be illegal. I know it isn't possible to make them so without violating free speech principles, but free speech does not include the freedom to lie and deceive over public airwaves. Too often Americans believe that free speech means the freedom to say whatever the heck you please, but it doesn't. Through all of the "patriot" flagwaving nonsense that goes on in this country, Americans understand very little about America. But what do you expect when books are mocked, when it's cool to say "I've read two books in my life?" How can people who live in an environment that mocks reading and education be bothered to read the Federalist papers and other documents that explain what the founders of this country intended when they set up this system of government?

What is the deception I speak of? All of it - on both sides. But the one ad that bothers me right now is the McCain ad that says Obama is going to tax the hell out of working families.

Huh?

This makes more sense when viewed in light of who McCain considers to be working class. You're not rich unless you make $5 million a year, so Obama's plans that may slightly raise the taxes of those who make $3 or $4 million a year are going to put those millionaires in the poor house! (You choose to use more of the country's resources, you pay for it! Don't like it? Move to a country with lower taxes! Wait, you mean the United States has the lowest tax rate of any industrialized country? What?) Average Americans won't notice an increase in their taxes, because THERE WON'T BE AN INCREASE.

When did honesty cease being a standard character trait? When did it become despised by so many? And why do people choose to believe negative attack ads instead of doing the research on the candidates for themselves? Laziness? Ignorance? Stupidity?

Are YOU one of the idiots who believes this propaganda?