Summary Of The Film So Goes The Nation

In the year 2004, elections were being held for a new United States President. The candidates were republican, George W. Bush, and democrat, John Kerry. The film “So Goes the Nation” portrays the strategies each political party did in order to win the election. Both political parties had very different strategies, but Bush did an unfair campaign compared to what Kerry did in his. Both political parties held conventions where they will talk to their voters and also have other people represent them as well. In Kerry’s convention, it involved talking about the good things about being a democrat and how it will enhance the nation’s future if Kerry was elected president. On the other hand, Bush’s convention involved talking very badly about the Democratic Party and what is wrong with the party. The republicans even came up with the term ‘flip-flop” for Kerry. Bush also had campaign ads that talked about Kerry and the “bad stuff” he does. Bush was being unfair because Kerry never did anything that talked bad about the other party or anything that could hurt the reputation of Bush, instead he talked good about being a democrat and what he plans to do, and Bush’s campaign focused on bashing the
Democratic Party in any way they can. In political campaigns, they make political ads that come out on television so the people that watch can be informed about who is running and what they stand for.
Both Kerry and Bush had campaign ads, but Bush’s campaign ads involved emotional ads like the event of September 11, 2001. Bush also made campaign ads that used fear of gay marriage, since most republicans are against gay marriage, to make people vote for him. Bush used emotions to get people to vote for him and a candidate shouldn’t use emotional ads because people will vote due to their emotions and not actually think what candidate is planning to do if they vote for him. Kerry could’ve done emotional campaign ads as well, but instead he focused on representing himself and what he stands for in the present and
future. In political campaigns, some focus on finding anything that will make the other candidate look bad. Bush had political campaigns that did just that. He had people find anything bad on Kerry in things he probably did in the past and tried to use it against him. They found out that he voted on sending troops to Ira q in the past, while he was saying in his political campaigns that he’s going to stop sending them to Iraq and keep them here. Kerry probably did vote on sending them to Iraq because he thought we needed to be protected. Even though he voted on sending troops before, he realized that he was wrong and changed his mind on it. Bush tried to make him look like he couldn’t decide on what to do, but people change their mind all the time so, there was nothing wrong with that. In conclusion, Bush won the election not in a fair way. He was unfair because he talked badly about the Democratic Party; he made campaign ads that involved emotion and fear that try to influence the people’s votes; and he tried to ruin Kerry’s reputation by finding some things Kerry did in the past that will make him look like a bad person. If Bush would’ve been a nicer and fairer candidate, it would be fair if he won or probably Kerry would’ve won the election.