Making Lemonade Out of . . . Lemonade
If you have a spare moment on this, the day before the end of the world, I encourage you to check out the 60-second ad, seen below.
It ran in the Los Angeles area earlier this month, as voters in California's 36th Congressional District girded for this week's special election to replace Rep. Jane Harman, who's ditching the House to join a D.C.-based think tank.
Here's why the ad matters:
1) Craig Huey, the Tea Partying Republican who paid for it, went from a little-known ad exec to one of the two finalists in the district's July runoff. He got 22.2% of Tuesday's vote, good enough for a second-place finish (this particular CD breaks down as 45% Democratic and 27% Republican, so the odds are heavily against Huey winning the runoff).
2) Listen carefully to the message: staggering national debt unfairly imposed on innocent kids, Obama and Congress at fault, do youself a favor and elect someone who's not a career politician and therefore will bring a new approach to Washington.
If it works along a deep-blue stretch of coastal Southern California (San Pedro to Venice Beach), just think what it could do in a more carmine corner of America.
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Oct '10
Re: Making Lemonade Out of . . . Lemonade
The problem I have is with his time frame.
When Bush tried to reform Social Security by arguing there would otherwise be problems down the road in a couple of decades, some journalist noted that he thereby undercut his message, as people would conclude it is therefore a problem for the future. Similarly, if you say deficits will burden your kids, all too many will shrug and think 'no problem for now.' I think that pointing out how perilous our national debt situation is, given Standard and Poor's threat to downgrade the U.S.'s creditworthiness, and pointing out how that might drastically affect employment and interest rates for mortgages, business and personal credit and possibly cause a depression, would generate a better response. In other words, focus on the fact that we are nearly where Greece was when it began to go bankrupt, and on the price of inaction by maintaining the status qou.
Edited on May 20, 2011 at 11:55amSep '10
Re: Making Lemonade Out of . . . Lemonade
This ad takes a stab at making the moral case for a balanced budget: what kind of cruel oaf would steal a little kid's piggy bank? But we conservatives need to go way, way beyond this. If smoking can be converted from an "everybody does it" social behavior, to a distateful, disgusting habit, why can't we do the same with deficit spending?
High taxes and irresponsible spending need to be considered morally equivalent to racism (or at least in the ballpark). Until politicians are forced to publicly and tearfully ask forgiveness for suggesting wealth distribution, we won't get any traction. The temptations of gorging at the public trough are just too strong.
Feb '11
Re: Making Lemonade Out of . . . Lemonade
But didn't you like how he said, "I approve of this message"? Every other politician just approves this message, like he is authorizing it to be aired, but Craig Huey approves of it, as in he puts his value judgement behind it. Do I sound like a fruitcake? Maybe I should stop posting while I am running a fever...