Congress, while usually referenced in the collective, is not a unit. Members are selected one at a time by voters in the 50 states or subdistricts of those states.

Clearly, the nation needs its best and brightest — informed, level-headed people — in the chambers of the legislative branch of government. Yet given how campaigning is conducted, voters these days are given little but half-truths and innuendo on which to base their decisions.

The special election contest between Roger Wicker and Ronnie Musgrove stands out as a shining example of this regrettable trend.

Party operatives working from Washington, D.C., have rolled out their stock smear campaigns. From ads, we learn that Wicker is a pork-loving tool of big insurance and big oil whose central focus has been raising his own pay and that Musgrove is a failed governor who nearly bankrupted the state and, at least so far, has avoided going to prison for corruption related to the Mississippi Beef Processors fiasco at Oakland.

There is only a smidgen of truth in any of the accusations, if that. National campaign committees — of which the candidates can safety and accurately claim distance — prepare and air the ads.

From the candidates themselves we hear very little, and when we do hear them speak it’s the stock, “I’m for you” message.

The truth is that in terms of experience and outlook, very little separates Musgrove, a Democrat, and Wicker, a Republican. Both are social and fiscal conservatives. Both have received campaign money from individuals and groups seeking to buy access. Both have had high and low points in their respective careers in public service.

Voters should be able to base their decisions on which of the two men has the greater potential to be an effective member of the U.S. Senate. That’s not an easy task. With so much obfuscation out there, it becomes even more difficult. Multiply that one contest by all 435 House seats and a third of the Senate seats to be filled on Nov. 4 — and it follows that selecting the best and brightest is really more of a challenge than it needs to be.

The interest of political parties is to increase their numbers, period. If it takes dishing up garbage to voters to achieve that goal, then that’s what they do. But it’s a terrible disservice to the public — and to the nation they profess to serve.