Humor and Politics

It's 98% of politicians that give the rest a bad name."

I am not really sure where I found this quote, but it certainly seems to exemplify the current atmosphere of the elections in the USA. It seems to be especially difficult to understand the issues this year, as the focus seems to be on fear and anger. If you watch television, you are painfully aware of the negative and emotion-laden ads. Political advertisers do realize that fear is our most powerful emotion. They know that these ads get our attention.

I believe that these fear-based and negative ads, that are coming from all political parties are increasing the fears and stress of our nation. This national anxiety is rising to unhealthy levels. This week I personally experienced this anger during a meeting that I attended. My in-box is full of fear-based emails from people who are passing along crazy claims and angry comments about those running for political office. And we wonder why we have kids that use bullying behavior!

ENOUGH! Here is my sage advice to politicians. Use positive humor in your advertisements--and I do not mean laughing AT your opponents. If you watch the super bowl advertisements you realize that the ones that people talk about at the water cooler on the following day are the ones that are the funniest. We can learn a lot about the power of humor from the folks who purchase these very expensive advertising slots.

Humor is a very powerful emotion. Wouldn't it be great if all of the political ads had us laughing and thinking about what a joyful, energetic and happy politician is running for that office? I would personally like to view political ads and decide my vote based not only on the issues, but also on the candidate with the best sense of humor.

Because if we are going to solve the difficult challenges that we face as a nation, I want someone who thinks positively and has a sense of humor.