Repel the attackers

Dirty politics.

Put it right up there in the certainty category with death, taxes and holding a losing lottery ticket.

You'd have to ask a candidate to try to explain the phenomenon of wanting something so badly he or she would stoop to personal attacks to lower an opponent to a conquerable height rather than elevate himself to an admirable altitude. That goes double for some supporters of candidates.

Yes, we're talking about the mindless TV and radio attack ads that are little more than legal daggers buried quick and deep in the ribs of an opponent. They are as educational as a postage stamp and as reliable as an anonymous Internet comment. Yet every election cycle, candidates spend millions on these morsels of mayhem because you, the consumer, apparently eat them up.

We are also talking about community campaigns that fling fiction like it's fact and focus invective on foes who stand in their way. This is not merely a lacking degree of political decorum, either. It's rotten campaigning that consistently brings out the worst in people. It keeps good candidates from seeking office and disgusts some potential voters to the point that they would rather exercise the TV remote than their most sacred right as an American citizen.

Dirty politics is every bit as much a crime of the consumer as it is of the perpetrator. The people who engage in these pathetic ad buys and grassroots whisper campaigns do it because ultimately, they're rewarded for it. By whom? By you and me.

We urge citizens to examine their role in this ritual and at least consider a compromise. Pay attention to how much time you spend watching and listening to TV and radio political ads. Then pledge you'll spend at least that much time exploring candidates' positions on issues; the real positions, not the positions stated by bloodthirsty opponents.

That way the republic will better be served, and we're pretty sure you'll feel better about your vote, too.