The Ethically Bankrupt Election
Posted at 10:15 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2012
Peter Singer is troubled by the presidential election’s “failure to meet a series of ethical benchmarks for democratic choice.”
“According to the US-based Center for Responsive Politics, spending on the election – for President and Congress, and including spending by outside groups as well as by the candidates and their political parties – is estimated to have exceeded $6 billion. That makes the 2012 US election the most expensive ever held… No one really expects political advertising to provide citizens with the information they need to assess the candidates’ merits properly. For the presidential election, however, the practice of holding three televised debates between the two major parties’ candidates should be an opportunity for a thorough airing of those issues. Unfortunately, the most recent debates failed to achieve that goal.”
