Political Ads now make up 75% of local TV news time advertisements
This has been quite a fortnight in political ad wrangling.
These ads are not for those that get easily angered at lies or "near" lies. The near lies are far more common and by that I mean things that are true, but when presented make the viewer draw a false conclusion.
For example, Social Security is not a local issue. Someone could be in favor of the IRS taxing Social Security at 99% and it still doesn't matter when you live in a state without an income tax. So anyone playing the Social Security card (especially in Florida) is doing so with the intent to scare senior citizens. That voting block is a three-fer'
1.) Their per-capita participation is high.
2.) There are a lot of them in Florida.
3.) They can be easily swayed.
I have seen Democrats in Florida use that with great success (the only reason Jeb lost in 1994 was because of that). Republicans must have been impressed with its effectiveness, and as such I have seen that several times for local races from both sides.
The "Racist" Ad in Tennessee
When I first saw the so called "Racist Ad" against Harold Ford on TV, I was not sure what about it was racist. I later learned that suggesting that a white woman find a black male (btw, what percentage black is Harold Ford anyway?) attractive was racist. Sometimes what you find objectionable to shows your prejudices more clearly than what you are objecting to. Moreover, if someone is so racist that connecting a white woman with Ford would cause them not to vote for him, what makes you think that person would vote for him anyway?
With just a few days to go, the next week should be very interesting. I will post how I will vote later on.
--Joey
posted by Joey @ 9:43 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Joey - with all respect - you grew up in a multi-ethnic household in a multiracial urban environment that has virtually nothing in common with my homeland - the old WASP dominated south. My father grew up on the Virginia/Tenn border, I grew up in Northern Virginia back when it was still Confederate territory,and now live near Tennessee. We are, if you will, talking about my ethnic group.
The ad is racist.
And you misidentify the point of it.
In addition to the geographic difference there is also a generational one. I was not around in the early 60s to see all the turmoil in the South.
I still contend that voters that are worried about Harold Ford dating White women would not vote for him anyway. When I saw it, the part I thought caused the stir was the beginning where a Black woman says "He looks good, isn't that enough?". I interpreted the "Harold, call me" line to be: Harold Ford is so out of step with Tennessee voters that he has no problem going to the playboy mansion to party (which by the way, what single guy wouldn't do that in a second?)
--Joey
Tia carida agrees with you about the generational thing. It is also an 'ethnic' thing. I am certain that the thinking of the people who produced the ad, and who are about my age I suspect, was that it would fire up just enough people out there to make their way to the polls. Did it make a difference? We'll never know. As you say, Ford may have lost anyway, but in a tight race, every little wave makes a difference.
Still, if the Repubs are willing to use a racist tactic, even an outdated and ineffectual one (and I am not sure it was either) they need to be prepared for what happened on the broader front. They lost hard-won ground with African American and Latino voters.
This is not a winning strategy for the future.
Okay, I think I see what you are saying. There were voters who would have otherwise not voted but seeing the ad, it stirred them to vote against him.
Fair enough. How many people do you think saw the ad, viewed it as racist, and decided to stay home instead of cast their vote for Corker?
Or, how many Blacks were going to skip voting but got enraged by the ad, and pulled the lever for Ford?
The vote was close but not that close. 3% is difficult to make up.
I would agree more with the GOP losing ground with Latinos than with Blacks. Blacks vote for Democrats with remarkable uniformity. Registered Democrats don't vote for Democrats on a per capita basis to the extent that Blacks do.
However, if they could break 60-40 or 70-30 the would be very few blue states.
--Joey
You are probably right that it was a wash. I didn't claim that it was a smart or succesful ad, but rather that someone thought it was. And I do believe that Republicans were making headway with African American voters for the first time in a long while.
But you are also right about the Latinos. Progress torched. Don't know where the Repubs go from here. Demographic change is NOT on their side if they can't broaden their appeal.
They can hope to capture the young, but aside from the fact that the young seem to live in a post-racial world (as your reaction to the ad shows) they also seem not to get upset about sexual matters that the Repubs have played with.
So, what next?
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