The premise of democracy, at least the American incarnation, is to allow people to believe whatever they want to believe. As a candidate, you have the freedom

The premise of democracy, at least the American incarnation, is to allow people to believe whatever they want to believe. As a candidate, you have the freedom to say whatever you want. Even if everything they say is true, they can draw attention to the wrong issues, or stoke fear. To argue against misinformed voters is to argue against the foundation of the process. It's not just foreign countries dropping propaganda to disrupt sensible consensus, its the people themselves running who are propagating misinformation. "In a Democracy, the real rulers are the dexterous manipulators of votes, with their placemen, the mechanics who so skillfully operate the hidden springs which move the puppets in the arena of democratic elections. Men of this kind are ever ready with loud speeches lauding equality; in reality, they rule the people as any despot or military dictator might rule it." - pobedonostsev At the end of the day, whoever either spends the most money yelling out a megaphone, or gets the most attention yelling, gets elected. Except for times like Trump exploiting the modern news/press cycle for his own benefit, most election winners are the one who spends more money. I think the last time the lesser spend won a presidential election was Carter running against Ford. Goldwater got spanked as well, compared to spending.