Campaign Week

By Jessica Kamp and Brandon Jaworowski  As the time for political elections comes closer, campaign ads litter the local tv channels. In the majority of these ads, politicians use all types of ways to persuade voters to vote for them. Yet most of the time, they don't follow ethical guidelines for their argument. In order to be ethical, arguments should present both positive and negative aspects, use typical events rather than extraordinary events, use qualified sources of evidence, use evidence in the right context, and not use weird or obscure statistics. In one of David Vitter's campaign ad, he accuses his opponent of favoring illegal immigration and shows some evidence of the way he favors this. He shows people throwing a big welcome party for illegal immigrants when they cross the border. This party is supposedly thrown by his opponent. He then tells viewers of the way that his opponent voted on bills about illegal immigrants. He ends the ad by saying that he does not support illegal immigrants. If he is elected, he won't support them.  In his ad, Vitter does not provide support for his claim that his opponent favored illegal immigration. He does not give a credible source which makes his argument weaker. Also, he exaggerates the context of his argument. Just because his opponent supports illegal immigration, that does not mean he would throw them a welcome party. Basically, Vitter does not follow the ethical guidelines for arguments and weakens his appeal.