Local Expert: Twitter Inflating Worse Human Nature In GOP Presidential Race
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The latest chapter in GOP presidential primary politics has dragged the candidates' wives onto center stage.
The unwritten rule for decades has been to keep wives and children out of the political fray.
That is until now says one local political science professor who talked about the "kerfuffle" with KYW Newsradio.
Shauna Shames teaches at Rutgers University Camden, and says this election cycle has been filled with inappropriate behavior, including the compromising or unflattering photos recently circulated:
"What has made all of this worse is the ease of sharing insults and particularly these photographs through Twitter, the instantaneous and really tempting nature of the new social technology that allows the candidates to go after each other, and so quickly."
She believes the Republican party is not going to benefit from this mud-slinging:
"The GOP's greatest weakness right now is women voters, and this kind of politics, this highly negative, highly personal, and family oriented politics, I think will ultimately back-fire for the GOP. This is turning off the people that they actually need."
She says Trump seems to be benefiting the most from the insult, however:
"Those who already didn't like him, will be further repulsed by this action. But those who like him, I think, he's playing to his base."
Shames adds that technology makes it hard to take the high road.