Stooping low to get even further below
The Republican National Committee gave some $$ to an independent group (exactly who, they don't say) to make an ad against Democratic candidate Harold Ford Jr who is running for Senator in Tennessee, my former home state. This rather commonplace election-time activity of negative advertising has apparently reached a new low, however, with the airing of an ad featuring a white woman suggestively soliciting Ford. I've not seen the ad, but I did hear the audio on NPR this morning.
Apart from the ridiculous nature of campaign attack ads in general, this particular ad is causing a stir because of the racist undertones (or, as some would say, blatantly racist tones) presented. What I find interesting is the Republicans' continue to use the issue of race to stir shit up in a Southern state and the national media's inability to restrain themselves from eating it up.
Gee, The South. Everyone's a backwards racist there! Woo. Hoo.
It's all quite stupid and inflammatory. Sure, there are plenty of racists in Tennessee, but there are just as many in Illinois, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania, for example. You don't see the RNC giving money to insinuate or incite racial tension in northern or midwestern states. Until the South stands up for itself and refuses to indulge the rest of the nation in their latent racist inclinations, cartoonish ads insinuating sexual and racial, should we say misadventures, will continue to play out on the cultural landscape. I'm not even going to mention George Allen's ties to supremacist groups. Oops.
Back to the anti-Ford ad. My favorite part of the interview with the RNC Chairman this morning? His statement about the "legalities" of funding campaign ads. Basically they can't ask, and the commercial makers can't tell. Oh, and the RNC bears no responsibility for any racial tension that might result. I said Good Day, Sir!
Please vote the muthafuckas out this election day! The Republicans are not your friend.
UPDATE: And neither is Harold Ford Jr, as pointed out to me earlier this afternoon. I don't know what's worse, a Republican,or a Democrat who thinks he's Republican. Although, let's be honest, Tennessee is a ridiculously red state.
7 comments:
You can see the ad, where else?, on YouTube.
fuck. i heard about this on npr too! it pissed me off to no end as well. and you are right, racism is everywhere, it is just that the south has a brand on it that says "stereotype us! it is easy, because people are stupid and don't actually bother to check things out on their own!" grrrr!
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here's a new question. how do progressives, who generally play fair, beat these conservatives, who are clearly playing dirty?
these bastards have a lot of money and really have no standards. if we stoop to their level, then we lose our integrity. if we continue with our fair-play ways, who knows how long that will take, or if it even will produce results.
This TN race is really a big deal. Check the News from Votemaster, under Senate Polls, at this site DM posted on Dogblog recently. (Thanks, DM!)
This is the one that could make the Senate go one way or the other, and the only reason why I wish I was still registered there.
BG, you're an even-toed ungulate with excellent common sense, so I respect your opinion when it comes to politics. Please know that I ask this with all due humility: why vote for Ford?
His positions are calculated specifically and well to the right of my mainstream in general, perhaps even more righty than Corker in certain cases. He's for the war, for "Xtreme!" homeland security, anti-labor, anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion, and has a terrible voting record in the House on issues (the personal bankruptcy vote comes immediately to mind) that squarely impact his constituents in the 9th. Honestly, why isn't he running as a Republican?
No question, Corker and his GOP proxies have run a typically vulgar campaign against Ford and deserve our scorn, but I dispute any progressive credentials Ford might claim for himself. It isn't enough to have racists smear you; you have to stand for something.
Should the Senate tilt Dem in the near future, I don't believe that will make any difference in the way the bidness of Congress is conducted. If I vote at all in this race, it will be for the Green candidate. I realize my views are in the "Xtreme!" minority in TN and elsewhere, but the seasonal talk of taking one for the team and voting Dem, well, that's not my team and hasn't been for a long time. Different faces / same old shenanigans, I suspect.
Change my mind, please. Tell me there's a microscope that shows a significant difference between these pirates.
I was never a huge Ford fan, mostly b/c of the whole political dynasty thing. (Is being an elected official really supposed to be your lifelong career...?) Mostly I was pissed this morning about the racism thing, not specifically the canidates.
I want Ford to win so that hopefully the Dems can retake control of Congress and stymie the Bush n' Friends Monster Machine. There are plenty of corrupt Democrats, sure, but unfortunately it seems corruption only matters when one is in power.
The "half-full" side of me hopes that if the Dems win, the current administration will be fully investigated for all the egregious wrongs they've pulled in recent memory. The "half-empty" side of me knows that Washington is really full of only 3 things: Republocrats, Demopublicans, and a lot of horse manure.
I'd love a Green administration in DC. I'd love to see some accountability. I'd love to have my country back from all the fear-mongers and war-lovers.
I just don't see it happening anytime soon. I'll keep hoping. Until then, I have to play the game. God forbid, I may just have to run for office one day myself.
Gus and Fer, I must admit that while I was still in TN, hearing Ford, Jr. campaign for this Senate seat formerly held by Bill Frist, I, too, was pissed off by many a thing I heard and saw. He's really Libermanned himself (without the same consequences) it seems to appeal to people who formerly would have voted for Frist. A lot of Democrats have been pissing me off in the last few years by moving to the so-called "center." As to if this will work for them and why, that's something I'd like to explore, but it's only a tangential issue for this here comment.
Even if they weren't majorly pissing me off, I would still rather register myself with the Green Party over the Dems. I agree with what the Green Party espouses so much more, and would like to see a progressive 3rd party really shake things up. Let’s take a trip in your handy, dandy Wayback Machine. In the 2000 election, I totally had Nader stickers and even financially contributed to the Greens. Note that Jr. at this point in time was way more left than he is now, and spoke rather eloquently at the DNC convention. When it came time to vote though, I voted for Gore, and the issues weren't even as critical then as they are now. When Bush was placed into office by Uncle Scalia, I thought "Okay, this is evil, but at least this idiot one-termer will provide us with some comedy for the next four years.” Wow, was my naïve little self in for a wild ride! Zoom to 2004--it only takes a few years later to fuck almost everything up--this silver-spoonfed failed businessman/orator becomes leader of the free world for another term. Back to the present. Now, things are so completely and utterly fucked that I can barely stand to live as a citizen of the U.S. of A. without having to apologize daily to my inner-child. It’s barely funny anymore. When I watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report and laugh, I am also crying.
If the issues weren’t so critical on a large scale right now, I would totally be spending my energy campaigning for some Greens, or others like them. However, I really don’t think that liberals and progressives can afford to do that here in 2006, or maybe even in 2008. We definitely couldn’t afford it in 2004. It’s kind of like with competitive sports--I do this at the risk of building a clumsy analogy, because I’m not a huge sports fan: If there’s a team you really, really hate who’s on top, you root for the team to be toppled by whoever has the best chance of beating them, even if you’re heart beats with the blood of the New Orleans Saints. Love ‘em all you want; they’re not winning or even getting close to the Super Bowl without some major work.
Lastly, one of the reason why conservatives have been doing so well--aside from the whole fuck-fairplay/by-any-means-necessary playbook--is that they are united. Yes, I agree with that whole thing about it being easier for them to play well with each other, because most of them are fairly homogenous, simple and proud, self-proclaimed “dittoheads;” while we on the left tend to support diversity and encourage independent thought, for which we are also proud. Case in point, right here in Tex-ass, lots of Republicans have openly criticized Governor Rick Perry, but their endorsements and votes are pretty much going to him over “Grandma” Strayhorn; which is why Perry is probably going win, since liberals seem to be split over Chris Bell and Kinky Friedman (though Kinky is turning off a lot of folks now).
While I disagree with Ford on a lot issues, a vote for Jr. would not be so much a vote for him as it would be for the Democrats. It’s the Democrats in congress that have the best chance of putting the Bush administration in check. I agree what we really need is radical systems change, but that’s nigh impossible right now, and difficult, to say the least, in less critical times. At the very least, the Dems will have more to stand on, more people on their team, as they question what Dubya is doing with the “War on Terror,” the economy, and a long list of other crap. The Dems at least give me some lip service on things I agree with; most certainly more so than the Republicans, and we so cannot afford to have so many dittoheads in power anymore. I will just have to trust that the Dems will work on giving me more than their word, since the Greens just don’t have that capacity right now.
That’s my 98 cents.
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