American political rhetoric has quickly turned into bashing candidates, steering away from the real purpose of political campaigning, which is to promote candidates beliefs. The 2016 election was a perfect example of how candidates have drifted away from the focus of self-promotion and moved toward insulting the opposing candidate and their bad character. In previous elections, the goal for campaigning was for the candidates to state their views and why they think it would be the best option for the country. Candidates would use different types of rhetoric that appealed to their own character. Candidates would act in a logical manner and respect the opposing candidate, despite their different ideas on how to run the country.
However, this election season was different. Instead of persuading the audience that they were the best candidate for the country, they would take the negative approach and try to convince the audience why the opposing candidate was bad. Not only did political ads attack their ideas, but they would attack the opposing candidate's character. For example, calling Hillary Clinton corrupt and a liar, make the phrase "crooked Hillary." Clinton made a video of kids watching Donald Trump make negative comments on tv, asking if they want their kids to have him as a leader. These ads attacked the candidates as people, which is different from campaigns in the past. It's not necessarily good rhetoric because it takes away from the goal campaigning, which is to state candidates views on important topics.
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