Huh. I'm watching Dateline on NBC as I type this, and I'm being bombarded by political ads. There are almost no ads for anything but politics, and NBC shows tonight (as with most nights lately). But I noticed something interesting. While the pro-Obama, pro-Democratic ads are fairly standard issue, there's a common thread in the Republican ones.
One ad was an official Mitt Romney ad (he approved this message), and one was against Shelley Berkley, from the National Republican Senatorial Committee . The theme of both? Democrats are bad. Particularly liberal Democrats! Especially President Obama and his liberal Democrat "friends." Both feature shots of Nancy Pelosi, both with ominous graphics, and a sharp, staccato emphasis on words like "liberal, Democrat." Naturally, the word "Democratic" is never used, it sounds too nice.
It's certainly not new to try and make liberal and Democrat into dirty words. It has been a mission of the Right for decades. But the similarity of these ads was striking, and the deliberate emphasis on those two words, and the somehow evilness of Pelosi was unmistakable. The stimulus, bank bailout, Affordable Care Act--all are attributed to Pelosi, and her reckless liberal spending. Two of the three big votes are also described with a hard rightward spin: wasteful stimulus, government takeover of health care, facts decidedly not in evidence. See for yourself:
One ad was an official Mitt Romney ad (he approved this message), and one was against Shelley Berkley, from the National Republican Senatorial Committee . The theme of both? Democrats are bad. Particularly liberal Democrats! Especially President Obama and his liberal Democrat "friends." Both feature shots of Nancy Pelosi, both with ominous graphics, and a sharp, staccato emphasis on words like "liberal, Democrat." Naturally, the word "Democratic" is never used, it sounds too nice.
It's certainly not new to try and make liberal and Democrat into dirty words. It has been a mission of the Right for decades. But the similarity of these ads was striking, and the deliberate emphasis on those two words, and the somehow evilness of Pelosi was unmistakable. The stimulus, bank bailout, Affordable Care Act--all are attributed to Pelosi, and her reckless liberal spending. Two of the three big votes are also described with a hard rightward spin: wasteful stimulus, government takeover of health care, facts decidedly not in evidence. See for yourself:
The Romney one is only interesting because it's from the candidate himself. Rather than strictly focusing on Obama = bad, or Romney = good, it's trying to tar the entire Democrat[ic] Party. Unfortunately, I can't find the exact ad. The one I did find from earlier in the week seems to be a prototype of the one I saw on television, but you'll get the idea.
Wow, if you are defending Nancy Pelosi, you won't find too many people, including democrats and even Obama, who would support you.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't trying to defend Nancy Pelosi, just pointing out that it's kind of weird that they're attacking Obama and Berkley THROUGH Pelosi. But that's your view from inside the bubble anyway. Pelosi is actually fairly well liked by liberals, and her daughter's films are terrific.
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