Steve Flowers: Negative ads work and always have

Over the years, many of you have lamented to me and said, “I am so tired of seeing all negative ads with candidates lambasting each other in political campaigns. Why don’t candidates say what they are going to do when they are elected, rather than bashing their opponent mercilessly?”    People also suggest that campaigns are more negative today than in bygone years.  Allow me to answer the question in the reverse order.   Criticizing and slandering your opponent is not new. It was actually more vicious and incendiary in earlier American political life, and much more personal.  First of all,