If you really want to make more people go to the polls on election day, put someone on the ballot a lot of people hate.
That’s because we are far more likely to turn out because we can’t stand someone than because we think one candidate is a really swell person.
That’s one of the conclusions of an ambitious study of voter attitudes spanning a 24-year period led by Jon A. Krosnick, professor ofpsychology and political science at Ohio State University.
Reacting to the Bad Guy
“People are more motivated by the threat of something bad than the opportunity for something good,” says Krosnick.
But the research also turns up this bit of surprising news: We really want to like these folks. The studyshows that there is an element of optimism in how we approach politicians.
“Our work shows that people approacheach new politician with hope and optimism that maybethis will be the hero they’ve been hoping for,” he says.
If it turns out that wecan’t stand either candidate, we’re not very likely to vote because either way, we lose, and the dismal choice turns us off. And if we like both candidates about the same, we’re also less likely to vote because either way, we win.
So in order to have high voter turnout, we need a saint and a villain.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119958&page=1
Before any presidential candidates become entrenched in the primaries, party leaders seek out andencourage qualified people to run for office. Without theseendorsements, a wannabe has no chance.
Those in power pick people who they expect will rally theirpolitical party — Republicans select conservatives, and Democrats select liberals.
When candidates of the same party do battle with each other, the differences are microscopic, at best. It is at this point that all the subjective differences become important.

2012 should be the trophy winning year for voter turnout....Hate is the operative attribute in America.

Agreed.

its been this way a while now,, IM sure the vast majority of political ads address 'why you shouldnt vote for.....'

than they do 'you should vote for me because I....'

Something like this :

I have made up my mind to appeal to the people against the combination that has been made against me; the Republican leaders having formed an alliance—an unholy and unnatural alliance—with a portion of unscrupulous Federal office-holders. I intend to fight that allied army wherever I meet them. I know they deny the alliance, but yet these men who are trying to divide the Democratic party for the purpose of electing a Republican Senator in my place, are just as much the agents and tools of the supporters of Mr. Lincoln. Hence I shall deal with this allied army just as the Russians dealt with the allies at Sebastopol,—that is, the Russians did not stop to inquire, when they fired a broadside, whether it hit an Englishman, a Frenchman, or a Turk. Nor will I stop to inquire, nor shall I hesitate, whether my blows shall hit the Republican leaders or their allies, who are holding the Federal offices and yet acting in concert with them.

Abraham Lincoln responding to Stephen A Douglas 1858

http://www.bartleby.com/251/1003.html/

I sincerely believe thetruth will set you free, but following the false promises and lies of people who promise you things they cannot deliver will lead to nothing but darknessand disappointment.

part of that downfall began when we started holding campaign ambitions to the definition of a 'promise' in the first place

changing that perspective would erase alot of that 'disappointment'

a government is hundreds of people who have to work together, not just one politician