General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: In 18 years since Naders run, what has been accomplished by attacking the Dem party from the left? [View all]Caliman73
(11,738 posts)The negatives on Hillary Clinton were based on distortions and flat out lies, but they were there and the Republicans counted on the long history we have had with both Bill and Hillary to have some effect. The purpose of negative ads is to suppress the vote on the other side. That is what it is designed to do. When the Clinton campaign discussed how "unfit" Trump was, we who were supporting her, certainly knew it was true and we voted, but the 45% or so who didn't vote for anyone, most likely felt that either choice was wrong because of the negative ads from both sides.
I do think however that the media had a much more profound effect than ads necessarily, and they played up the conflict issue rather than policy. Perhaps the ads might have helped in some key states to up participation for those extra 80,000 votes, but we will likely never definitively know.