For a substantial slice of every election year, America tacitly agrees to set aside its collective dignity. The catastrophe of Sept. 11, 2001, unified this country, temporarily suspending most political divisiveness, including that regarding the disputed presidential election in 2000. Just a decade later, such togetherness and singularity of purpose seems impossible to imagine.

Mudslinging is as integral to politics as scandal, double-talk, hypocrisy and faux-concern. But at what point will the American public unite to condemn the vicious, disrespectful and demonizing tone of the political ads that flood the airwaves every two years?

Of course, getting Americans to unite for a war on negativity and dangerous politics is unlikely. This is largely because such ads are so effective that they have therefore become staples of the election process. For every citizen disenchanted by the rules of engagement, there is another upon whom campaign advertising worked. The dilemma of cause and effect for campaign advertising is similar to that of fast-food consumption: Is it their fault for producing the poison, or our fault for consuming it?

Politicians, political analysts, pundits and professionals of all stripes can agree that political ads are becoming progressively nastier. With proliferating extremist groups across the country, an agitated and boisterous contingent of small-government conservatives known as Tea Partiers and a highly polarizing commander-in-chief, it’s no wonder that political ads are playing up the acrimony and madness.

Political ads on ABC News and YouTube are accompanied by helpful summaries, including the inane “Carly Fiorina ad depicts her opponent (Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.) as an evil blimp,” the Poe-invoking “Dr. Dwight McKenna runs an ad accusing his opponent of organ theft,” the Islamophobic “Dem. Candidate Alan Grayson calls his opponent ‘Taliban Dan Webster’ in TV ad,” the deluded “A conservative group mocks an Alabama gubernatorial candidate for his belief in evolution” and finally, “Candidate Rick Barber in TV ad says (health care) bill is form of slavery.” These samplings reflect the hostility and lack of decorum that candidates direct towards their opponents.

A country that laps up the hateful ammunition that negative political ads casually supply during commercial breaks is inherently sick. Airtime in the wrong hands is detrimental to the public good because, when one candidate exploits societal, religious or class-based fears, receptive audiences learn to loathe all persons with opposing views. Political advertisements of this character are among the reasons that America is continually at war with itself.

The machinery of American politics has lulled most of us into a deep, fitful sleep. It’s time to wake up. These political “leaders” are not your friends. You may want to know them, but their interest in you is self-serving and superficial. You’re more of a business contact, really. You are merely a single brick among millions with which they hope to build fortresses of power, influence and self-aggrandizement.

Political advertisements manipulate the weak-minded into lending themselves to the highly publicized power-struggles of unique individuals who covet the perks and lifestyle of high office. The profuseness of politicians, the purportedly selfless, routinely demonstrates how much they care for themselves, but their commonly-exercised negativity and divisiveness demonstrates how little they care for us.