A New Anti-Obama Political Ad… Fun Follows!
[guest post by Dana]
Conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity has released a new anti-Obama ad aimed at reaching women. Although it brings up some valid concerns, it’s sappy and has a silly premise with President Obama cast as a bad boyfriend. Unfortunately, for me the messaging is lost in the girly-girl nonsense and diminishes points being made. Personally, I wish both sides of the aisle would just stop making campaign ads as they typically miss the mark, and whether by a mile or a hair they usually end up nearly unbearable to watch.
Anyway, the ad opens with a pretty woman wearing pink and pearls talking straight to the camera:
“In 2008 I fell in love. His online profile made him seem so perfect. Handsome, smart, charming, articulate. All the right values. I trusted him,” a woman in a soft living room setting says to the camera in what looks like a commercial for an online dating site.
“By 2012 our relationship was in trouble, but I stuck with him because he promised he’d be better,” she says, as the pleasant feel of the commercial quickly gets more ominous.
“He told me we’d be safe,” she says. “Have you looked at the news? He’s in my emails and text messages, spying on me but ignoring real threats.
“He said that we’d finally get on our feet financially. I’ll never pay down what he’s spent,” she continues. “He thinks the only thing I care about is free birth control, but he won’t even let me keep my own doctor.”
By this time her computer screen has shown the man she is talking about is Obama.
“I know I’m stuck with Barack for two more years … but I’m not stuck with his friends,” she says, a reference to the November midterm elections in which Republicans hope to retain control of the House of Representatives and take over the Senate.
“I’m looking for someone who gets that this isn’t about him,” the woman says. “It’s about us.”
In reading about the ad, I stumbled across a bit of huff-puffery from a described “active feminist and LGBTQI advocate” who slammed the ad as designed to convince women to abandon the Democrats for Republicans by playing on one of the most loathsome stereotypes about female voters—that we vote for male politicians we want to fuck.”
Which reminded me of something:
The writer continues her assault:
This is what conservatives think of (straight/bi?) women: That we vote based on who we think is the cutest boy; that we view our (male) political representatives as our boyfriends; that we are not offended by categorizing disappointment in a politician as an abusive relationship; that we think it’s totally appropriate to suggest the President is stalking us like an intimate partner; that we don’t hear or care about racist dog whistles like referring to the black President as “articulate”; that we don’t find it wildly disrespectful to refer to the President as “Barack,” especially to maintain the reprehensible illusion that he’s our mean boyfriend; that we think caring about free birth control is frivolous; that we are stupid. Very, very stupid.
It’s funny because throughout Obama’s presidency, female supporters (we certainly can assume they were Democrats) regularly swooned over him, even crushing on him. Further, I believe it was a female Democrat whose disappointment in a politician manifested itself in a violent imagery involving abuse of women. And I don’t know about this chick, but I sure heard and cared about the racist dog whistles from certain Democrats.
As to who is stupid, readers can decide for themselves.
–Dana