Approachable, nonpartisan, and nonideological analysis of various political topics by nonpartisan political analyst, writer, researcher, and speaker Paul Rader.
Is Negative Campaigning Effective? | Politics with Paul #114
Negativity reigns in political ads — from assailing of candidate records to personal attacks. Despite candidate pledges to be positive and voters’ insistence that they hate negative campaigning, combative and adversarial ads become only more ubiquitous in the final weeks before an election.
With the harmful impacts to democracy and dialogue that negative ads can bring, there are some questions we need to ask ourselves as voters, candidates, and political observers. Is negative campaigning really that effective? Do we truly hate negative campaigning like we say we do? Can it still sometimes serve a good purpose? And lastly, what can we do about it? Today’s episode of Politics with Paul explores these questions and more.
0:00 What We Should Ask Ourselves About Negative Campaigning
1:35 What is "Negative" Campaigning?
6:26 The Blurred Line Between "Informative" and "Misleading"
9:21 Why Negative Campaign Ads are So Common
14:46 Do We Truly Hate Negative Campaigning?
19:06 How Effective is Negative Campaigning?
26:41 Why it's Hard to Legally Limit Negative Campaign Ads
30:52 How We Can Push Back Against Excessive Negative Campaigning
38:06 Closing and My Other Links
Other Works
FREE 5-day educational email course on how to fight polarization: https://detoxifyamericanpolitics.com/ (https://detoxifyamericanpolitics.com/)
Buy my book about political independents: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Independents-Rarely-Win-Elections-ebook/dp/B09K8PYM5J/ (https://www.amazon.com/Why-Independents-Rarely-Win-Elections-ebook/dp/B09K8PYM5J/)
Medium articles on elections and political science: https://paulrader-42650.medium.com/ (https://paulrader-42650.medium.com/)
Media
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulrader352/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulrader352/)
My website: https://paulrader.org/ (https://paulrader.org/)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulRaderWrites (https://www.facebook.com/PaulRaderWrites)
Email: paulraderwrites@gmail.com (mailto:paulraderwrites@gmail.com)
6 Oct 2026
Why Do We Vote? Why SHOULD We Vote? | Politics with Paul #113
Voting is often treated as a simple civic duty, but the reasons people vote are more varied than that. In this episode of Politics with Paul, we look at why we vote in the first place, whether voting can be considered rational, and five common motives that shape turnout.
The discussion evaluates those motives and explores the blurry lines between altruism and self-interest, as well as between duty, belonging, and social approval. It closes by asking why understanding our motives for voting matters at all.
29 Sept 2026
Are We Truly Rational When We Vote? | Politics with Paul #112
Voting is often treated as a straightforward act of reason, but the reality is more complicated. In this episode of Politics with Paul, we examine what it means to vote rationally, how heuristics shape political choices, and 4 major models of voting behavior: rational vote theory, party-line voting, retrospective voting, and prospective voting.
The discussion also looks at what influences our ballots beyond pure reasoning and asks a central question: how rational are we, really, when we vote?
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