College Football Saturdays Are a Stark Reminder of What’s Broken in Our Politics

Every commercial break brings another misleading attack ad—and another reason to question how we choose the people who represent us.

Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash

I’m trying to watch college football.

That’s it. Enjoy a Saturday. Watch some games. Spend a few hours with something I love.

Then comes another commercial break, and apparently everyone running for public office is a dangerous lunatic determined to destroy my life.

Ominous music. An unflattering photograph. A quote clipped down to a handful of words. Some accusation that leaves me wondering what actually happened, what context is missing, and whether the person who made the ad even cares.

Then the other side gets its turn.

By the time we return to the game, I know two people supposedly hate America. I still don’t know what either one plans to do for me.

Is this really how we’re supposed to choose our leaders?

We have to do better.

(Below Former Congressman Mark Walker describes the dangers of campaign ads)

I want to know what a candidate stands for. What they care about. What they understand about the lives of the people they want to represent. Tell me what you intend to accomplish, how you intend to accomplish it, and what the tradeoffs might be.

And if you’re going to attack your opponent, show your work.

Give me the full quote. Explain the vote. Tell me what was actually in the bill. Make an argument that survives a little scrutiny.

An attack can be fair. A candidate’s record should be examined. But a sliver of truth stretched into something unrecognizable doesn’t help me make an informed decision. It makes me feel like somebody thinks I’m a sucker.

I’m tired of being treated like a sucker.

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I don’t expect every American to spend a commercial break researching a congressional voting record.

People have jobs. Children. Bills. Plenty of things to worry about before they sit down on a Saturday afternoon.

That doesn’t relieve us of our responsibility to be informed. We should do our homework. I should do mine.

But campaigns have responsibilities, too.

They know a frightening accusation can reach someone who will never see the explanation or correction. They know repetition can make something feel familiar, and familiarity can start to feel like truth.

I look at the money poured into these ads and think: Somebody believes this is a worthwhile investment.

That’s depressing.

Because what are we investing in? A better understanding of the candidates? A serious debate about how to govern?

Or another thirty seconds of making us despise somebody?

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(Below Former Congressman Mark Walker describes how the political system is rigged by the rich and powerful)

If this is the process that helps people win office, why are we so surprised by the way they behave once they get there?

We’re told there are three things we can do to help a campaign: donate, volunteer, and vote.

I understand why campaigns need resources. People have to organize, travel, hire staff, and communicate.

But why does money have to occupy so much of the conversation? Why should the ability to raise enormous sums become such an important qualification for representing people?

Federal candidates already face contribution limits. Super PACs, however, can accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, unions, and other political committees to fund independent political activity. That spending is supposed to operate independently of candidates and their campaigns.

I understand the distinction. I still look at that arrangement and wonder where the ordinary voter fits.

You can have your vote. You can make your modest contribution. Meanwhile, people with vastly greater resources can help fill the airwaves around you.

How is that supposed to inspire confidence that your concerns carry the same weight?

I want campaigns funded by the people they seek to represent, with clear limits and meaningful transparency. I want us to move away from super PACs and the enormous outside money surrounding our elections.

That’s the direction I want reform to take. Getting there would require serious work, and I’m not pretending a sports radio host can settle every constitutional question between kickoffs.

But the difficulty of fixing something cannot become our permanent excuse for accepting it.

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When Mark Walker joined me on Show Pony Live, we talked about how ugly the political process can become.

What stayed with me was his description of the pressure to play by the team’s rules. Step outside those expectations, and you risk having people turn against you, support a challenger, and work to replace you with somebody more cooperative.

That conversation bothered me.

Because where, in that arrangement, is the freedom to represent your constituents? Where is the room to say, “I understand what the party wants, but I think the people back home need something else”?

If keeping your job means keeping the right political people happy, how much independence do you really have?

I don’t believe every elected official is corrupt. I don’t believe everyone who donates money expects a favor. And the parties have real differences that matter.

But neither party should get a pass on this.

I want to know whether a candidate can stand up to their own side. Whether they can disappoint a donor. Whether they can tell their supporters something uncomfortable because it happens to be true.

Those seem like useful qualifications for public service.

I’d love to see more ads about those.

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I’m not going to romanticize the founding of this country. The promise of representation excluded far too many people from the beginning.

But we can still ask what that promise should mean today.

Should choosing our representatives feel like this? Should we accept an election season in which we’re buried under accusations and left to excavate the truth ourselves?

We hear so much about draining the swamp. Maybe we ought to spend more time examining the process that sends people there.

Who gets the financial support to become a viable candidate? What do they have to do to keep it? What behavior gets rewarded? What happens when they refuse to cooperate?

Those questions deserve more attention than another grainy photograph and a scary narrator.

I want candidates to earn our trust through a fair exchange of ideas. I want accessible debates, clear explanations, and attacks backed by evidence that we can actually examine.

I want to finish a campaign knowing what someone intends to do with the job.

That feels like a reasonable expectation.

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Americans are tired.

We don’t need every college football commercial break to become another delivery system for anger and suspicion.

And I’m not asking for a world without political disagreement. Argue. Challenge one another. Defend your record. Explain why your opponent has it wrong.

Give us something worth considering.

The people running for these offices want responsibility for the most pressing issues in our lives. Our families. Our livelihoods. Our communities. Our future.

We should expect a campaign process worthy of that responsibility.

Instead, I watch another Saturday afternoon disappear into a parade of ugly ads and find myself thinking the same thing:

If this is the best case you can make for why you deserve to lead us, we have a much bigger problem than who wins the election.

More from Show Pony Media

If you missed my work tonight, check out my Saturday college football reactions—a whole lot to unpack from another wild day.

And for something that will leave you feeling a little better, read my Brooks & Dunn concert review. Seeing those guys in Nashville was a reminder of how much I love ’90s country—and how good it feels to spend an evening singing songs you’ve loved for decades.

Thank you for reading and supporting what I’m building here. It means a lot.

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